Fate: Strikers
by Parcasious
Summary: It was true that Lost Logia were magical items of tremendous power, but he was of the impression that Noble Phantasms were of a different sort. Now if only he could persuade the woman trying to detain him otherwise. It didn't help that she was convinced that he could create them at will, making him a literal walking disaster. Admittedly, in some ways, she wasn't wrong.
1. Chapter 1

-Disclaimer: I do not own Fate or Nanoha

**Beginnings: Prologue (Starts at Strikers) **

* * *

Lost Logia, magical items of tremendous power. They are the legacies of lost civilizations with the majority consisting of the culture of the Ancient Belka, the lost home world of the Magical Civilization. Its current status was unknown, the coordinates unable to be obtained or discovered through the effects of a dimensional dislocation.

Regardless, Lost Logia, when left in the wrong hands could bring about endless tragedies, which was why they must be secured and contained at all costs.

This was the principle aspect of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, an interdimensional security force formed by a union of several worlds.

Which was why, as Shirou stared at the blue jewel that appeared through space in front of him, he really should have had just left it where it was. However, when he noticed that it had the effect of corrupting the local wild-life and turning them into monsters, he couldn't just leave it alone. Worse, the sheer amount of magical power he could feel from the jewel was shocking.

He frowned as he fiddled with the jewel in his hand, inspecting it closely.

He scratched his head. He was never good with this sort of thing anyway, and as such, it was probably better if he asked someone else.

Carefully placing it in his storage bag, he sat up and began making his way back.

Left behind, were the ruins of a battlefield. One whose scars dug massive craters and crevices over the entire area.

It was a war zone, and he the lone man walking upon it, never noticing the rift that formed in space hours after he left.

Nor the woman that came out of it.

She stared at the area around, her expression solemn. The letters SAFA were embroidered into the white-collared uniform that she wore, and she took a moment to unruffle the wrinkles on her blue skirt upon arrival.

She breathed in, then out, her brows furrowing in the next moment. "Just what happened here. This is earth isn't it? Why does it look as if magic was used here?" She mumbled to herself.

Earth was included in the Time-Space Administration Bureau numerous worlds, only it wasn't supposed to have the presence of magic. Only a select few humans had that ability and it forced the Time-Space Administration Bureau to act discreetly lest they reveal the presence of magic to the common people.

The woman shook her head and readied her staff. "Let's go, Rising Heart."

She had a mission to complete, and a stolen Jewel Seed to retrieve.

BREAK

Alright, that's the start of this new crossover. Reading over some of the information from Nanoha's wikipedia, I quickly realized that there's a lot I can actually do with this. Both Fate and Nonoha have the concept of mages and Earth. This prologue is the starting basis and I didn't make it too specific in case I need to revise a few things in the future due to my lack of knowledge in this fandom at present. I have something in mind right now, but I have to do some more reading first and maybe binge the show (Hopefully its good). I don't want to shoot myself in the foot after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Her name was Nanoha Takamichi, nineteen-years old and member of a tactical combat training group of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau.

The Time-Space Administrative Bureau was an interdimensional security force tasked with the protection of various parallel worlds. It was militaristic in organization and Nanoha could be considered one of its most defining members whose magical capacity had reached the (S+) grade. However, on assignments outside of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, a limiter was set to maintain her magical capacity to a double AA standard.

It was made as a safety precaution due to how damaging magic could be in parallel worlds where the existence of magic did not exist.

Earth, Nanoha's home world was one such case. With a population in the billions, the existence of magic was said to be only found in less than a handful of individuals. It would just so turn out that Nanoha had been included in that handful of individuals ever since she had been a child. In which case, she'd been recruited by the Administrative Bureau after the events of the Jewels Seeds and Lost Logia in her adolescent years.

A magical disturbance had been detected by the Administrative Bureau on the Magicless world of Earth, there, it was assumed that a remnant Jewel Seed or a stolen Jewel Seed had been left behind in the past incident.

Jewel Seeds were gem-like crystals that possessed tremendous magical power that could fuel the spells of large-scale destruction machines. Alternatively, if they were left behind in the environment, they could spawn monsters from the magical contamination. In a world such as Earth who was ill-equipped to deal with such dangers, Nanoha had been sent to intervene. As Earth was her home world, she had even more reason to resolve the issue.

Nanoha looked at the spot on the map where her inter-space transporter was supposed to have had deposited her off.

A pink dot indicated her location within a small screen mounted over her wrist.

Her current location was somewhere within Eastern Europe, just off the borders of Germany. Of course, it was set to deliver her away from any populated cities to avoid any unwanted attention, but that was the least of her concerns.

Damaged buildings.

Cold bodies.

Death.

Ruin.

Nanoha's expression hardened the more she explored the area. It was supposed to have had just been a small rural town with a population of less than five-hundred, but right now she couldn't see anyone still left alive.

She paused for a moment and tried to send back a message to the Time-Space Administrative Bureau. However, her transmission device appeared jammed and was only playing back radio static. Regardless, she'd try to leave a message.

"Nanoha reporting," she spoke curtly as required by protocol. "The effects of the magic surgency on Earth appears to show signs of a violent Jewel Seed reaction. Enemy unknown, current casualties…" she began counting the corpses that she could see in her view. "Roughly a hundred or more. Beginning operations."

She couldn't let anymore people die.

She wasn't as young as she had been before. Death was something that she'd been forced to be able to cope with, but there was no way that she could keep herself calm.

No one deserved to just die.

It wasn't right.

Nanoha paused in order to examine one the deceased bodies. It was mangled in several places as if it had been bitten by animals, but in other places such as the neck, it looked like it had been cut clean off. That wasn't the work of an animal or monster, but a human.

Similar decapitation kills were prevalent in the area around her.

Some of the bodies were greyed, their lips blued, but others were still fairly fresh.

The perpetrator couldn't have had gotten far, give or take a couple of hours.

Nanoha stood up on her feet, her eyes narrowed into the distance.

No matter who she was chasing at this moment, logically speaking, there was no way that she wouldn't be able to catch up. To begin with, the enemy had no idea that he or she was being targeted, meaning that they wouldn't be cautious of covering their tracks.

She began running, following a trail of destruction and ruin.

Another reason that Nanoha knew that she'd catch up was the simple fact that she was following a guided path. In terms of cycling or any other event, the one at the forefront of a race always took the brunt of the resistance. In other terms, if one was traversing through a jungle, the progress of the lead individual cutting through vines would be slower than those moving behind him.

She was the pursuer, and her target was the prey.

After years of training, her body had long since become used to strenuous physical exertions. The fact that the area was devoid of life only helped her close the distance faster due to the augmentation of her magic.

She jumped from left to right, her strides longer than five meters and her speed matching that of most standard vehicles. Her long brown hair tied into a side pony-tail on her head flicked back violently in the wind.

The scenery quickly shifted from the decimated rural village to a more populated town.

Nanoha pursed her lips, urging herself to pick up the pace.

The corpses lining the path forward were only growing in number, and soon enough, she'd reach a city.

The amount of destruction whoever was attacking these people could cause in a more populated zone was not lost on Nanoha.

_Faster. _

A dull light shone from her magical gear known as Raising Heart which had both supportive, and offensive abilities. In this case, a sheen of transparent white magic created a film around her body and propelled her forward by double her current speed.

She reached the city area in only a couple of minutes before moving to a high building for a better vantage point.

People. She could finally see people.

In the middle of her vision, she could see crowds of civilians aimlessly walking though the open streets. Something about them was 'off.'

No one was speaking to each other, and the scent of rotting flesh was the only smell permeating in the air rather than gasoline or industry-made products.

Nanoha scanned the city, and faltered for a moment when she noticed people hiding within the buildings, seemingly afraid to step outside and get noticed. However, that couldn't be the case. Perhaps they had seen the man responsible for all the killings that she'd seen and were just holed up in their apartment rooms utterly terrified.

It was a more likely case.

After all, Nanoha knew that Magic didn't exist on high levels on Earth. Assuming that everyone acting 'weird' on the streets was being affected by magic, why could she not sense the use of a Jewel Seed which was theorized to have had remained on Earth? The magic emitted from using one could be clearly discerned just from testing the frequency of the mana present in the air.

So, if it wasn't magic, then what was going on?

She couldn't understand the situation, but maybe some kind of magic spell that she'd never seen before was currently being used?

In any case, her priority was finding the one responsible for what she could clearly see was a mass genocide.

Raising Heart shifted into Shooting Mode, the staff-like heart-shaped device developing two prongs for stability and opening up to a sleek muzzle.

Nanoha set herself up just over by the edge of the building and began surveying the city through her magically enhanced scope.

As a veteran of numerous magical related incidents, she'd notice right away if anything was worth her attention and react accordingly.

A tracking-like monitor flashed in her gaze, looking for any signs of activity. It flashed red moments later which indicated the use of magical energy. The only thing that Nanoha could think of which would have magical energy large enough to be detected in the area was a single object.

_The Jewel Seed? _

Nanoha quickly swerved her aim to look just passed the alley of two buildings roughly two kilometers away from her.

There.

She finally saw it.

There was a man with short red hair tapered near the top, and wearing a sturdy black combat vest with matching pants. In his hands were two swords, one a pale white and the other a deep dark.

He was tall, far taller than her by far with a pair of auburn-coloured eyes that seemed to stand out regardless of the distance; they were piercing in their clarity.

However, she couldn't forgive them.

How could they look so free of guilt or remorse while in the midst of murdering others?

The swords of black and white cut into the flesh of the citizens and lopped off heads with an efficiency better than any bullet. Limbs were uprooted from their joints, cut loose by sharpened edges that struck again and again with little pause.

It was hard to watch.

The people swarming the man in a futile resistance to attack him were dying in droves, but somehow the people had forgone their fears and hurled themselves at danger anyway. From a certain perspective it may have had been admirable, but what Nanoha was watching was basically just suicide.

Blood arced up into the air, splattering over the ground in red mottle-like clumps.

No more.

She could imagine piercing screams echoing out as the dull thud of heads rolling sent shivers down her spine.

_No more! _

It didn't matter how oddly the citizens seemed to be acting, the man was killing them without any hesitation. She couldn't let this murderer continue for any longer.

"Raising Heart,"

Her magic swelled from within her, converging on a point over the muzzle of her weapon as a pink magic circle manifested beneath her.

Divine Buster.

One of Nanoha's most proficient skills.

A long-distance bombardment spell with explosive damage and barrier-piercing ability. Coupled with her magical reserves, she could easily level a city based on the control of her output. Moreover, her allies had always criticized her when it came to this certain spell with a single descriptive phrase.

_'A lot of power.' _

Hardly anything she shoots with this could survive in tact, and she didn't plan on making any exceptions. The only down side was charge time, but she could fire quicker with less power, but the damage would be reduced.

Her eyes narrowed.

_Reducing power, minimizing explosive radius. _

The magic circle around her dimmed.

There were too many people crowded around the man.

Precision was everything.

A small ball formed at the center of her aim, no bigger than a dime but dense enough to pierce through even the strongest of barriers.

Her finger fell over the trigger, her sights locking onto the man's form.

He hadn't noticed her.

The distance was too far.

Yet why did she feel as if she was begin stared at?

She shook her head.

Now wasn't the time for any hesitation.

Fire.

The recoil forced her back, but she'd fired her weapon enough times to remain focused on her target.

From the moment that she had fired and pulled the trigger, the magic bullet streaked through the air and crossed the distance in an instant. However, just before collision with the target, something happened that Nanoha was unable to discern.

A flash of light, the sound of metal grating against metal.

Nanoha was forced to shield her eyes from the brightness.

When she looked back, rather than a downed target, the man was still standing while bleeding from a puncture wound on his leg.

Her mouth dried in disbelief. Her Divine Buster had been weakened to reduce the spread of its explosion, but it was still considerably powerful. Only something like a Lost Logia should have had been able to withstand it, but from the smoke still coming off of the man's swords, he'd deflected the shot at the last moment and mitigated the impact somehow.

What kind of weapons were those?

It didn't matter right now.

Seeing an opportunity, the enraged citizens of the town directly surged towards the man who was forced to quickly retreat.

He entered a building and hurriedly shut the door behind him.

Damn it.

She lost sight of him.

Nanoha augmented herself with magical power and directly leapt to the location two kilometers away by using Raising Heart as a spring board and shifting it into flight mode.

She soon landed on top of the building where the man was taking refuge, but quickly faltered before she could even try to enter the building and apprehend her enemy.

What the hell was going on?

From a distance, the 'citizens' appeared to be regular people, and they still did, but no no!

"Help! I-It hurts!"

Nanoha reacted fast and shot without thinking. However, the 'citizen' that she'd shot in the stomach acted as if nothing had happened.

A woman's throat was directly bitten into as she continued to scream for aid. However, her scream only attracted more of the crazed citizens to attack her and feast on her flesh.

Nanoha's eyes dilated, the pallor of her skin turning pale as she backed away and tripped on her feet, landing on her butt.

T-These things weren't human.

Or perhaps they were before, but not anymore.

Nanoha had seen many things in her life, but watching a woman get torn to pieces and eaten alive was a first.

These weren't people, they were monsters.

She felt her body grow weak, but her training kicked in and forced her to remain calm.

She sucked in a breath, her chest heaving up and down before her breathing stabilized. Placing her hands beneath her, she pushed off of her palms and stood up on her feet. There were far too many things going on right now that she had no idea about.

This was Earth.

This was definitely _her _Earth, but she'd never seen or heard anything like these things before.

It had to be the work of magic. That was the only explanation that she could come up with.

Her hands were trembling, a shiver travelling down her spine as she realized the severity of the situation. These monsters weren't just here, but if her previous vantage point was anything to go by, they occupied almost the entire city.

How many people had been affected?

It was difficult for her to even picture it.

Was this really the work of the Jewel Seed? There was no way it ever had this sort of function.

She pursed her lips, her brows knitting together before her expression fell.

The woman who had just been screaming for help, whose limbs had been torn off and scattered on the ground, suddenly stood up on half-eaten legs. Different from before, the woman's skin had greyed, and there was no life in her eyes. She joined the rest of the undead.

Nanoha swallowed before looking towards the roof entrance of the house that she was trying to enter.

If the monsters that she saw in front of her where what she had considered 'citizens,' then what did that mean for the person that she had shot?

Oh God.

She felt sick, guilt eating away from within her, but she couldn't just run away from the problem.

She calmed herself and soon entered the building to look for the man inside.

It didn't take her long to locate the man.

She just followed the blood stains on the floor until she entered a dim-lit room illuminated only by the light of a window where the man sat beneath.

He was right there, staring at her with an unflinching gaze, his eyes dim, almost weary like he had been walking through hell. A hand was pressed to his leg to quell the bleeding on his left thigh.

"If you were trying to kill me, you should have aimed higher." The man almost sounded cynical despite talking about his own life. Still, there was a persistence and determination in his gaze that in no way resembled anything a homicidal murderer should have had possessed.

"Sorry," Nanoha had no other words to express her remorse other than an apology with her head bowed.

The man looked at her up and down, before easing his expression.

"It's fine. You aren't the first magus who's tried to kill the Second Magus Killer," the man grunted while trying to maintain an upright position. "Granted you were probably the closest. I didn't expect an attack from over two kilometers away."

Nanoha's complexions paled further.

"Sorry," Nanoha repeated again, the terms that the man had used completely going over her head in her fluster. "I-I really didn't know. I-I thought you were killing people."

The man sighed wearily.

"It's alright. If you're talking about the people, I tried to save as many as I could but this city is done for just like the earlier town."

Nanoha kept silent as the man spoke, but finally could no longer keep herself quiet.

"What are those things?" She asked softly. The man seemed like he already knew what they were dealing with.

"Ghouls," the man said curtly. "They're what's left of a human after a Dead Apostle feeds on their blood."

"Dead Apostle?" Nanoha blinked at the man as she heard the unfamiliar term.

The man looked at her strangely for a moment before shaking his head. Evidently, this wasn't the time to explain anything too thoroughly.

"No time. Just know that if any of the ghouls outside bite any normal humans, the number of ghouls will spread like a disease." The man pushed himself up onto his feet and hobbled to a different window on the opposite side of the room. "I was trying to bar them from getting to the airport on the west side of the city, but have now failed. If any of them manage to board a plane and get out of the country towards a populated city, you can imagine the result for yourself."

Nanoha's eyes narrowed. She couldn't let such a thing happen.

Watching the man in front of her, Nanoha could feel his sincerity and desire to help others. Recalling that she'd shot such a man over misunderstanding left her inwardly bitter about herself.

She'd thought that she had matured in her years in the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, but it seemed that she'd been too full of herself.

"Is there any way to stop them?"

The man looked at Nanoha and assessed her as his gaze lingered on Raising Heart.

"Aim for the head," the man soon advised. "I can't stay here much longer. If we can't stop them from reaching the airport, we have to at least destroy the planes while the other Enforcers secure the perimeter."

Blood leaked from the man's leg, something that Nanoha did not fail to notice.

"You can't leave in your condition," she said worriedly.

The man remained determined; his gaze steady. "I have to save as many as I can."

The man wasn't lying.

Nanoha could tell by the concern on his face. The man did not intend on giving up despite the danger to himself. However, how long had he been fighting these ghouls for?

The man looked exhausted. He was panting for breath, his hands trembling, and pieces of his clothing heavily torn.

"You need rest," she couldn't help but try to dissuade him. If he went out now, what could he, normal human, do against those ghouls in such a condition? Magic may be able to help, but running into a human that could use magic on Earth was the same as looking for a needle in a stack of hay.

It was improbable.

The man shook his head. "I may look exhausted, but that's only physically. I still have a few tricks left up my sleeve, but this injury is going to take some time to heal."

Nanoha tried to look at the severity of the man's wounds but balked when she saw the skin noticeably repairing itself at a slow rate.

"I told you had a few tricks," the man smiled wryly. "Now if you aren't trying to kill me anymore, I have to get ready to leave for the airport."

Nanoha opened and closed her mouth, but she realized that nothing that she said would convince the man to give up.

In which case, she quickly came to a decision.

"I'll help," she stated. Healing or not, the man did not look to be in a condition to fight all the way to the airport.

The man considered her words, yet ultimately came to a decision after recalling the wound that he had taken to the leg. "Fine. If you have anything strong enough, I'd like you to shoot the planes."

Nanoha nodded. She had the ability to do what the man was asking of her.

In the next moment however, the man scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, this might be little sudden, but now that you're helping, is there any way for you to get me there? I won't be able to move fast enough while my leg heals."

"Raising Heart," Nanoha called out. Her weapon shifted into a flatter form while hovering in the air. "You can ride on this."

The man stared at her weapon for a moment, before simply nodding his head and making his way over to sit on top. "Let's go. We don't have time to waste," he said.

"Right, but even if I shoot down the planes, what exactly are you planning on doing?" Nanoha pursed her lips. "Isn't it safer if I just left you here and did it on my own?"

"I told you I have my ways. Just trust me on this one," the man looked at her earnestly, causing a part of her to feel self-conscious. It didn't help that he appeared similar to her in age.

"Fine," she relented while turning her gaze away mostly out of guilt. When faced with the reality that she'd tried to kill someone so selfless, there was no way that she could meet his gaze with a straight face.

"Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

Honestly speaking, she really didn't know what was going on anymore.

Her eyes kept glancing at the corpse ridden streets on the way to the airport terminal and she suddenly felt the urge to vomit. What she was seeing was sick.

Just what kind of person would even do such a thing?

She didn't know, nor did she really want to understand why.

If something was wrong, then it was wrong, and that's just how life should be.

"How far away is the airport?" she asked while maneuvering up over the low-rising buildings. The streets were too packed with ghouls, and there was no guarantee that they would reach the airport in time if they took the open streets.

The man she was talking to was presently seated on top of Raising Heart which floated just beside her.

Rather than speak to her right away, the man's attention was focused on her weapon which she couldn't really blame him for. It was probably his first time seeing such a magic weapon that he definitely couldn't help being curious.

"It's called Raising Heart," she gave the name out causally, after the man failed to answer her previous question.

He shrugged after hearing the name, yet it sounded suspiciously like the man had said 'I already know' in reply, but she chalked it up to the stress of the situation getting to her.

At the very least, she now had the man's attention again.

"So, how far away is the airport?" She repeated.

"A couple more miles from here," he answered curtly. "It's currently hidden behind the high-rise buildings, but we'll be able to see it after we pass the next few buildings."

The man scanned the horizon before pushing back a couple strands of his auburn coloured hair and frowning.

She could understand why.

In all the time the two had spent travelling, they hadn't encountered even a single individual in need of aid. This meant to say, that the entire city was already overrun. In the worst-case scenario, there would be no survivors.

The fact that the man had been able fend for himself for so long in the ghoul infested city was remarkable. After all, it was commendable for someone without magic to do such a thing.

She subtly scrutinized the man beside her.

On appearance alone, his clothes differed from the average individual due to the fact that he was basically in a combat uniform. She'd helped the man onto Raising Heart, so she'd felt how sturdy his black combat vest was. Coupled with the black combat pants, she was of the impression that perhaps the man was sent in from the army?

It made sense to her in a way.

Something this big and wide-scale, there was no way that the rest of the world would not know of it. She'd be surprised otherwise because she could not understand the value of hiding something as major as this catastrophe. Therefore, it was likely that the man beside her was part of a recon team surveying the situation before further military intervention.

"Say, what's your name? And what do you know of the situation?" She asked him up front. "I'm Nanoha Takamichi by the way," she introduced.

He looked at her for a moment, and by 'looked,' she meant really looked at her. It was as if he was unable to understand her lack of knowledge. Regardless, he just sighed before scratching the back of his head.

"My name is Shirou Emiya," he supplied helpfully. "And as for what's going on, I thought that I was the only Magus who could be clueless about the moonlit world, but I guess I was wrong."

Her brows furrowed minutely.

Again, the term 'Magus' was used.

What even was that?

Perhaps it was a term assigned to the army personnel for the soldiers sent to deal with supernatural oddities? It didn't sound like too much of a stretch in her mind, and judging from how knowledgeable Shirou appeared to be, he must have had dealt with similar instances before.

Rather than question Shirou on his terminology, she decided to wait and hear him out.

"I'm a wandering mercenary that goes around saving as many people as I can," Shirou admitted while keeping pressure on his leg wound.

For her part, she was still inwardly kicking herself for her earlier blunder.

Shirou continued his explanation, ignorant to the shame present on her facial features.

"In this instance, I'm working with a special task force known as the Enforcers who deal with the emergence of ghouls," Shirou paused and pointed at the walking dead around them. "The things we're dealing with right now, and their progenitors."

"Progenitors?" She echoed his words, not missing the fact that the so-called progenitors were the identified cause of this sick mess.

"Dead Apostles, Vampires if you will," Shirou said in all seriousness.

She startled, her eyes widening. She didn't know the term 'Dead Apostle,' but she did know what a vampire was. However, weren't they supposed to just be monsters of myth and folklore?

They weren't supposed to be real.

"So, you're a Vampire Hunter?" She asked to clarify.

Shirou seemed put off by the title, but he reluctantly nodded because that was literally the objective of his current job. "Honestly, I'd prefer it if you just called me a temporary Enforcer for the time being."

She nodded at his request, not seeing any harm in it. Still, there were many more questions that she wanted to ask like how a normal human got involved with Vampire slaying? Moreover, the biggest question was how he and the other Enforcers ordinarily dealt with a ghoul outbreak?

Now would definitely be a good time for that kind of answer.

The faster that the ghouls were dealt with, the more lives could be rescued.

She opened her mouth in hopes of asking, but Shirou dashed away her enthusiasm,

"Details later." Shirou narrowed his eyes and hardened his expression. "The airport's coming within view."

She had more questions, in fact, she had many, however, Shirou was right. Now wasn't the time.

Like Shirou, she could now see the airport terminal directly ahead of her. It had a large strip with a long paved run way where six planes were parked at their respective terminals. Of the six planes, five were already damaged or were not properly secured to the passenger walk-on bridge.

This left only one plane which was operational.

Around the airport, crowds of ghouls were banging on the steel-meshed fences. The place looked secure, but she along with Shirou were quick to discover a breach in the fence that the ghouls were already crawling through.

"Damn it," she heard Shirou curse beside her.

She glanced away from him in mortification. She was the one who had shot him and prevented him from doing his job. In which case, now it was her turn to do her part. The appearance of a supposed Jewel Seed could wait for later.

Just as the two were nearing the airport, she suddenly dug her heels onto the ground and leapt up to the roof of an adjacent high-rise building. Raising Heart followed her along with Shirou on top of it.

For his part, Shirou was staring at her in confusion which soon vanished the moment that she spoke.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not taking you any further." She put on a hard stance and willed for Raising Heart to deposit Shirou on the roof top.

He fell and landed on his butt, yet the drop wasn't by much so Shirou hardly felt anything. Instead, he was staring at her with incredulousness.

"You can't be serious," he said to her.

She just gave him 'the look,' one that Shirou appeared to be used to because his expression fell.

"Stay here," her tone was curt. "Leave this to me."

Fast healing or not, even now she could still see that Shirou's leg wound had yet to fully heal. Being able to see the white of the bone was a good enough indication if any.

Evidently, Shirou could see that too, but he just didn't care. It was as if he didn't place any value in his own life with how determined he appeared to want to fight her on the issue.

However, she raised a hand when it looked like he was going to protest and glowered. "Enough. You're injured." She'd been trained by professionals in a military type setting so there was a certain authority in her voice. Her eyes narrowed. "Don't make me knock you out."

Perhaps he could see that arguing with her would get him nowhere so he eventually just sighed and relented. "Fine," he sounded exhausted. "But you've got to block them all. No one is to get on the plane."

Obviously.

There was no way that she was going to allow the ghouls to get out of the city and spread the infection outwards. She wouldn't be so stupid. Not when the objective was both clear and concise.

Her mind made up; she didn't put much thought into the depth of Shirou's words.

"No problems. I can handle it."

She crouched low and prepared to leap off from the building before a hand placed itself on her shoulder.

She craned her neck to see Shirou looking at her solemnly.

"Remember, _block them all_." He looked haggard, almost pained when he spoke.

Right.

Block them all.

That didn't seem so hard.

She nodded once more before jumping and making her way towards the airport

For one reason or another, she felt a chill travel down her back.

She shrugged the feeling away.

* * *

She silently landed on the ground; the noise of her feet largely muffled by the shifting and distribution of her weight moments before landing.

Raising Heart was the most visibly conspicuous for stealth as far as weapons go, but in this case, she used it as a distraction. Willing it through her mind, she made it circle to the opposite direction from where she had landed to attract the ghouls over.

Gliding in the air, she made sure to bang it against metal structures to create as much sound as possible.

The ghouls looked over and gradually ambled their way out into the open.

Using the time where the ghouls were distracted, she snuck into the airport before hastily recalling Raising Heart to her side faster than what the standard ghouls could keep track of.

The airport was as empty as she thought it was going to be. Worse, it was a mess.

Papers lay strewn on the floor along with spilled drinks and mangled bodies that she made sure were actually 'dead' before passing them.

The sound of her heels clicking against the smooth floor was the only noise to echo down the hall that she was walking through. Better yet, to prevent her from making any unneeded noise, she sat on Raising Heart in order to float soundlessly.

Apart from the random ghoul that she ran into, the airport just felt like a long maze with both upper and lower floors. However, she didn't get lost because she'd always had an objective in mind.

The northern plane terminal. The only plane that was eligible to fly at the moment was located there.

Rather than just bar the path to the plane, she decided that it would be best if she just destroyed the plane altogether and eliminate the risk. Again, she found herself curious why Shirou had not done so despite what he knew of the situation. Moreover, if Shirou's objective had just been to prevent the ghouls from getting onto a plane and infecting other areas, why didn't he just destroy the entire airport? Assuming that Shirou was from the military or some kind of armed force, then he must have had explosives somewhere on hand.

Her first thought was that Shirou was unable to plant the explosives on his own because there were too many ghouls around. In which case, maybe she could do him a favour and just blast the place with a magical attack from a given distance?

She mulled over the prospect while making her way through the airport's interior, but froze when the _real _answer smacked her right in the face. She could see them from just off the edge of her vision.

People.

Living people.

Hundreds of them all huddled together and directly within view through the large glass window of the northern terminal where the pilots and citizens had made a barricade.

The city was gone, infested by ghouls. In which case, the planes were the only real way out so it was no wonder that many people had congregated together towards a viable exit.

With living people still inside the airport, it was no wonder why Shirou hadn't just destroyed the place.

Looking at where the people where, it was clear to her that the only reason that they were still around and not boarding the plane was that there were too many ghouls in the way.

Every living person was behind the barricade at the waiting-area side of the plane terminal. There was a small gap that they'd have to cross in order to reach the passenger walk-on bridge, but the journey was precarious.

From the looks of it, the pilots among the group of survivors, possessed the means to open the lock on the plane and directly operate it. However, just like the rest of the survivors, they were trapped.

Assessing the situation, she didn't waste another moment and directly charged in.

Raising Heart appeared like a bladed weapon, and it wasn't just for show.

It's edge could be plenty sharp, and coupled by its weight, it was no joke to assume that she could kill someone with a single swing of an arm.

Melee was the best for the given circumstance. If she fired off any magical shots, then there was a risk of alerting more ghouls to her location.

In that case, fight.

She held Raising Heart with both of her hands, and powered herself with magical energy to bolster her speed.

Presently, due to the distraction she had made with Raising Heart before hand, only three ghouls were left barring the way from the group of people and the plane.

She was confident to say that they stood no chance from the moment that she attacked.

Her feet planting into the ground, and the ghouls stupidly close to each other, she struck all three in the head with a single precise blow.

Silence.

She looked down the long wide hall that she had come from and breathed a sigh of relief when no other ghouls appeared to be coming.

Now came a different problem entirely.

The people who'd barricaded themselves for safety were staring right at her with apprehension and wonderment.

Seeing that she was a human though, and didn't appear to hold any animosity towards them, the people slowly began to take down the barricade that they'd set up.

It was at this point that she came to a dark realization.

She was standing between the people that she ought to be saving, and the only plane out of the city.

She recalled Shirou's words and suddenly shuddered.

How could she block them?

I-It wasn't right. This was awful.

Everything about what Shirou had asked her to promise just seemed wrong at this moment.

The people finished removing the barricade and were moments away from running towards the plane walk-on bridge, but faltered when they saw that she was standing directly in front of it.

"I-I'm sorry, but I can't let you go," she forced the words out.

She was faltering. She damn well that she was faltering already. However, she wasn't a little girl anymore and she knew that there must have had been some risks that she hadn't yet considered but Shirou already knew.

He didn't seem the type to abandon people for no reason.

That was why she had to stop them.

Raising Heart was held in front of her, but there was no strength in her grip. In fact, her hands were trembling, her lips pursed.

"What, why?"

"Hey! Weren't you sent here to help us?!"

"This can't be happening."

The people looked at her pleadingly, many even dropping to their knees. Of the entire city of people, only this handful of several hundred that had taken refuge in the airport were left.

Against her better judgment, Raising Heart lowered from its combat ready stance.

"Go," she relented under their gazes. "Hurry. I'll hold off any ghouls that appear."

The people looked at her with such gratitude that it was hard to meet their gazes. Moreover, it wasn't that she couldn't meet their gazes, but more because she was going back on her word.

The pilots headed in first, making a mad dash towards the plane cabins before the rest of the people promptly followed in a massive crowd.

In truth, it felt as if everyone would have had started pushing and shoving each other to reach the plane if her presence wasn't there to ensure their safety. She supposed that was a good thing because she'd heard that panicking crowds often resulted in death by trampling and that was something that she didn't want to see.

While overseeing the people moving to board the plane and feeling inwardly conflicted, a child accidently bumped into her.

She looked down and her eyes instantly widened when she noticed the distinct bite mark hidden by a bandage on the child's left hand.

She'd already seen and heard from Shirou what it means to get bitten by a ghoul, and that was why, her mind blanked on her.

The child's mother was quick to arrive and cover the bite wound with a piece of cloth. Thereafter, the mother directly attempted to leave.

"Wait, stop," she called out.

The mother's complexion paled considerably while pulling the child closer into a hug.

The mother definitely knew that the child was bitten; the pleading expression in the mother's eyes was evident enough and the way that the mother anxiously stared at her was heart wrenching.

Just like her, everyone alive within the airport understood what it meant for a person to be bitten. It was like the old zombie moves; they were infected.

She couldn't allow the child to board the plane, but did that mean that she'd have to wrench a mother away from their own kid?

The thought caused her to tremble.

Wait. Just wait.

Maybe they could get help.

This was real life, not the movies. There had to be some way to help instead of ruthlessly abandoning everyone who was infected.

Maybe Shirou might have a method, but there was no guarantee.

_"Block them all."_

Shirou's instruction came to the forefront of her mind, causing her to feel a sense of guilt and doubt. If he had a method to save everyone infected, then why would he have had insisted that she block them all? She'd promised him that she would follow through with his instructions, but now here she was 'allowing' people to board the plane terminal behind her.

What was she supposed to do?!

Battlefield experience or not, this wasn't a battlefield, it was her home. Earth.

This type of battle was different from all of the battles that she'd ever faced before simply because none of the people desperately wishing to be saved were 'enemies,' but instead 'victims.'

This was a war of morality.

This was playing God, choosing who lives and who dies regardless of good and evil, and she was the judge.

"T-Thank you."

Caught in her musings, the mother took it as a sign of pity and quickly moved herself and her child into the group of people moving towards the plane. The mother and the child, were quickly swept into the tide of hurried citizens.

"Ah, wait!" She called out frantically, but perhaps realizing the situation for what it was, the mother refused to respond back. Worse, there were too many people, making it impossible to locate the mother in the crowd.

_Shit. Fuck. _

No. NO.

This was bad.

She felt a weightlessness growing in her stomach, an abyssal pit with no bottom.

What had she done?

Moreover, she suddenly came to the realization, that perhaps there were many more hidden infected within the crowd of people boarding the plane. Everyone wanted to survive, and if revealing themselves as 'bitten' would guarantee death, then no one would ever logically bring attention to themselves.

It had only been a coincidence that she'd seen the infected child. No one else would be so careless to reveal themselves again.

Then now what?

Stop everyone from boarding?

There was no way that they would listen.

The situation only got worse.

Unlike her who'd floated atop Raising Heart, the moving crowd of people were making noise. A lot of noise.

A crowd of Ghouls appeared at the end of the large airport hall.

Panic was quick to ensue and she was still caught up on what her proper course of action should be. As a result, she just stopped thinking.

By stopping herself from thinking, however, wasn't that the same as handing over the burden to someone else?

_Calm down. Breathe. You can do this. _

Right. Just focus on the task at hand. Life was important. No one should be able to decide who lives and who dies.

Besides, even if this was the first time that she was dealing with a mass magic related infection, there had to be some sort of cure. She believed that there _had_ to be because she didn't want to think about the outcome if there wasn't.

That kind of future wasn't worth fighting for.

Her thoughts ground to a halt, time seeming to freeze as she looked to the incoming ghouls and then to the crowd behind her.

Should she tell them? To warn them of the danger of infected people boarding the plane? They had a right to know.

However, how could she? Further panic would ensue and no one infected would be cooperative in the least. The fact that ghouls were coming was only making things harder. It was a rock and a hard place.

Her lips pursed together, and in order to focus her mind, she pinched the side of her stomach. Hard.

She chose not to tell them for the time being because she refused to believe that killing or abandoning others who were infected would ever be the correct answer.

She winced, but the momentary pain placed her body on auto pilot. She could see the ghouls approaching quickly and in response, she aimed Raising Heart to fire at them from a distance.

Aim for the head.

She took Shirou's advice seriously and never aimed for anywhere else since the damage could just be shrugged off.

In the mean time, the people continued to board the plane unaware of the hidden danger.

_Those people will die because of your softness. _

A voice whispered within her, a direct result of her guilt eating away at her.

Infection was fast. She'd already seen the way that a woman turned into a ghoul in a matter of minutes after being caught near the high-rise building that she'd first met Shirou at. Moreover, the fact that she'd hesitated and had allowed an infected passenger into the plane meant that even though she meant well, nothing good had come from her actions of giving way to the survivors.

She should have had maintained a hard stance.

The grip that she had over Raising Heart subconsciously tightened while she felt her insides constricting from self-doubt. She didn't know what to do anymore. Everything was spiraling out of control and at this point, a thought came to her mind.

_'Kill everyone.' _

Suddenly, she felt like she understood why Shirou appeared so pained and weary when last, she'd seen him. Perhaps he already knew that the situation would come to this, but for the sake of saving as many as possible, he forced himself into action anyway.

She suddenly pictured what sort of expression he'd make when he eventually realized that she didn't follow his words through and in turn, jeopardized the lives of the people boarding the planes. In retrospect, it would have had been far safer for the people if they had just remained behind the barricade.

After all, up in the air, there was no escape.

Stop.

Stop it right now.

No more. No more thinking.

This wasn't the time.

Fire. Just keep firing.

You weren't wrong.

There was still time.

These people still could be saved somehow.

She got into a crouched stance and leveled Raising Heart at waist height. It was supported by two balancers located at the tip of Raising Heart's muzzle where two blade-like surfaces converged together at the opening.

Magical power began to build and condense into a ball at the tip of her weapon.

Shocked gasps could be heard from the crowd of people still making their way towards the plane, and for her part, she paid them no attention. Given the situation, it was impossible to keep her magic away from common view.

It was either use her magic and reveal magic to Earth's populace, or let the people depending on her die.

She chose the former option.

She didn't care if the existence of magic was known. Not now.

"Raising Heart," she intoned her weapons name, a thrum of magical energy coalescing into several bands of ring-like structures around her. "Fire."

Her attack wasn't anything fancy.

The ball of magical energy that she'd gathered and focused at the front of her weapon shot out several energy beams that struck the heads of all the incoming ghouls at the front.

"Y-You, what did you just do?"

She stiffened, and glanced behind her.

Something inside her snapped when she realized that the people that she was defending were literally just gawking at her. "GO!" She yelled.

Jolted at her voice, the people resumed boarding the plane until there was no one left but herself at the entrance of the plane terminal.

She fired and fired and fired, till eventually, nothing was left.

Empty.

The open hall was now empty.

She tossed Raising Heart beside her, unwilling to hold it for the time being in favour of using her hands to steady herself against the wall.

She felt nauseas.

With the issue of the ghouls dealt with, it only left her more time to realize the consequences of her actions.

Minutes passed in a tense silence, and for her part, she kept staring at the plane through the glass window of the north side waiting terminal.

The pilots were the first to enter the plane, but for some reason, the engines have yet to turn on despite how desperate everyone seemed to escape.

A sinking feeling soon began to envelop her as the prospect of something _already_ having gone wrong in the plane caused her to swallow nervously. Things weren't supposed to turn out this way.

A groaning sound abruptly entered her ears and it was close. Too close.

She swiveled on her feet to see a ghoul that had been hidden beneath a waiting seat suddenly arrive in front of her. Admittedly, she'd missed it in her inattentiveness, and she barely had any time to react.

"Duck," a voice carried in the wind.

What?

Confusion struck her first, but instinct prompted her to follow.

She dropped flat onto the floor and felt a rush of air and power whistle past above her.

Light gleamed from off of the corner of her eye, reflected by a hardened steel surface.

The ghoul in front of her let out a choked gag before falling limp to the object that pinned it by the head into the far wall.

She opened and closed her mouth, her throat suddenly feeling dry.

Smooth and pristine, it was a far cry from anything that she would have had ever expected for a projectile.

It was a twisted sword.

More than that, magic suffused its form from tip to pommel.

It was magic.

A magic that she reminded herself was all too rare to be found on Earth.

Her head snapped to the direction where the sword was launched from, and it was there where she saw Shirou's form down the hallway. A black bow nearly longer than he was tall, was held fast in his hands. The wound on his leg was accounted for by a make-shift splint.

She had no words.

She momentarily forgot the matter at hand as she suddenly came to the realization that Shirou was just like _her_. One of the rare humans on Earth who was born with the ability to use Magic.

In the words of the Space-Time Administrative Bureau,

An Exceptional Earthling.

* * *

**Sorry for shorter update: Final Exams have officially started and I had to attend a course review session today to prepare for my first one. It's going to start getting busy these coming weeks, but if I manage my time right, things should go well regardless. Hope for the best, and thanks for reading!**

**Next Update: Fate in Time**

**P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious**


	4. Chapter 4

His name was Allen Miller, a man of unknown age, nationality, and motive, but one thing about his current lifestyle was clear. He was presently a Mercenary and working his ass off in a world that revolved around money. Without money there was no life, and he'd much prefer not to sleep on the streets again like the first time he'd found himself penniless and, in a place, that he had no idea where to go left from right. Only him. His life had never been straightforward and it was always one thing after another.

He grimaced and placed a hand over the bridge of his nose to better collect his thoughts. He was a quiet and reticent man, but that was only because he preferred to only show and say what was needed. In which case, he always had plenty of time to think which was what he needed to do now while readjusting the position of his M16 assault rifle aimed over the barricade he'd made around the city gone to hell in front of him.

Damn zombie ghouls.

He pulled the trigger and mowed down about a dozen walkers trying to make their way out of the city at his specific choke point. Other barricades were created all around the area and manned by trained mercenaries with relations to the residents of the Moon-Lit World, or stuck up prudes calling themselves Magi with a distinct classification known as Enforcer.

Honestly, he didn't know who he disliked more, the wandering and brainless low-tier ghouls, or the pretentiousness of his magically inclined clients. It was a hard choice really.

As the bodies of the ghouls splattered onto the ground, Allen eased his grip on his rifle before hearing a noise to his left. Instinctually, his arms moved to unclip his shotgun strapped over his back, but his mind quickly registered that there was no need for the big boy yet.

Well, fuck this shit.

He directly stood up from his post and unlatched the helmet he was wearing. He had a bushel of short messy blond hair cropped at the sides, and the cool, almost emotionless gleam of his emerald coloured eyes denoted a man who had experienced many events in life. He was wearing black with strips of white to better camouflage himself in his shadowed position, but really, he already knew he was going to be forced into action.

He irritably scratched the stubble growing on his chin while feeling the phantom pains of the scars running down from the brow of his left eye to his mouth throbbing. Not this shit gain.

In the distance, Allen all but verified what he'd heard. He could literally see it too based on the elevation of his vantage point. The sight of a plane's engine turbines roaring to life at the city's air port.

Not good. Not good at all. If he could see it, then his colleagues should be able to see it to, and that was even worse. If that plane took off, then the pay was going to get docked if the magi decided to take action, not that it was Allen's main point of concern.

He knew of magic. Hell, he'd been attacked and nearly killed by it, yet here he was again in another magic related incident doing his best to prevent any wandering ghouls from escaping the perimeter of the infested city in the middle of nowhere. It probably wouldn't be on the map anymore by the morning and those that had once knew of it would probably 'mysteriously' forget anything to do about it. Such was how the present world worked, and he was just trying to do what he felt was the right thing based on his own circumstances.

His eyes narrowed while listening to the distinct hum of the plane's engines roaring. In his right hand, he resolutely clutched onto a baseball-sized crystal channeling whatever power that he could from it as distant memories came to the forefront of his mind. He was resolving himself all while a single question played again and again in his head.

What are you doing Emiya?

He'd met the man, no Magus, on the field, and Shirou was perhaps the _only _Magus he actually had a good enough opinion of to call 'friend.' Still, this wasn't like Shirou to risk the lives of others by letting the potentially infected leave to another city. Maybe something went wrong, and he knew all too well what that meant.

Well, shit. He knew that he shouldn't have taken this job.

He loaded his guns and began to make his way to the airport. Better him to do the deed than a ruthless magus.

* * *

"What have you done?"

If Nanoha was thrown off by how bitter Shirou sounded as he approached her, she didn't show it as the majority of her attention was still on the fact that Shirou was like her. A Magic User labeled as an Exceptional Human by the members of the TSAB.

Her mouth opened, but she quickly found herself speechless not knowing how explain to Shirou about his extraordinary circumstance. Therefore, she aimed her gaze on the floor of the air port terminal and waited until Shirou drew close enough that he could make sense of her eventual stammers.

"Y-You can use magic too?" She sounded unsure, disbelieving if not for the definite proof in front of her eyes. This was earth, her home world. Magic Users were supposed to be as abundant as there were people who've landed on the moon. In which case, that meant that Shirou's magic ability were as rare as hers. They were two of a kind, and now that she thought about it, his impression of her was probably rock bottom considering she'd shot him when they'd first met.

"Magecraft," Shirou corrected Nanoha automatically, but as far as she seemed concerned, they were the same thing which was odd since Shirou had taken her to be a fellow Magus. Then again, she may just be a third-rate like himself so he wouldn't discriminate her over her own ignorance when there was once a time that he himself was in the same boat. A friend of his, Rin Tohsaka had been the one kind enough to educate him.

The two fell into a silence, but that didn't mean inaction. While Nanoha fretted over how best to explain the importance of what Shirou 'was,' he was more inclined to stare solemnly at the loaded plane whose occupants were desperately trying to get the vehicle off ground. The noise and sight of the engine turbines themselves were drawing every ghoul in the city towards the air port.

The wired fences around the facility were twisting and groaning as the ghouls created from the blood of Undead Apostles or Vampires piled and pushed against the defensive barricades. They wouldn't last for longer than a minute at the rate the ghouls were pushing, and by then, it would only be seconds until they began charging.

This was good. They were all together anyway which saved him the trouble. He turned a palm up to the sky, fingers outstretched as circuit-like magical patterns flashed over the surface of his skin, bringing thought to reality upon the actualization of his magecraft.

"I am the Bone of my Sword."

Nanoha felt the hairs rise at the back of her spine, her magical senses feeling a disturbance in the ambient mana around her all converging upon a point above Shirou's hand. Any thoughts of explaining what Shirou was were suddenly tossed aside as she quickly realized that unlike herself in the past before formal training, Shirou already _knew_ how to use his magic.

Amazingly, it was a type of magic that she'd never seen before. From out of thin air, the gleam of sharpened metal manifested in the form of swirling dots of energy that rapidly took shape and form: A sword, a twisted sword beyond anything that she'd ever seen before. Rather than see the sword's capabilities, she could practically _feel_ it.

It wasn't ordinary. Not in the least. It held regality despite its warped features, the gold and blue colour hues of the sword's hilt standing strong and bidding all to know of its name. It's Crystalized Legend.

To Shirou, what he'd created was a Noble Phantasm, and yet to Nanoha, it appeared to be so much more. Her mind had connected the dots using her own world views.

Without a doubt, what Shirou held in his hand was a magical item. A Lost Logia of tremendous power, but different from the Lost Logia she'd seen before, this type was different. One look was all it took to understand just how much magical energy was practically waiting to explode from the twisted sword's form.

Her mind blanked, unable to compute what she'd just seen, and unwilling to venture upon the notion that she'd just met a man who could produce a Lost Logia at his leisure.

No. This wasn't the time to be shellshocked.

She hardened her gaze and focused instead on discovering Shirou's intentions. With the twisted sword in his right hand, he didn't waste a second to notch it over the black bow of his left hand. A flicker of hesitation manifested in his eyes, and it was instant later that Nanoha understood why.

At first, she'd believed that Shirou was intending on firing the Lost Logia towards the crowding undead, but her beliefs turned into horror when she realized just where Shirou was aiming.

"What are you doing?" Traces of unease suffused her tone, her pupils already dilating as her heart began to beat faster from within her chest. Surely, he wasn't thinking what she thought he was thinking on doing?

He didn't answer. In fact, the expression on his face had contorted into a reluctant grimace which was all the more reason for alarm. Any notion that Shirou was just playing a cruel joke on her was lost at the sheer build up of magical energy around him now surrounding Shirou in a thin torch-like shroud.

He was going to fire at the plane getting ready to take off on the launching strip. There was no doubt at this point.

"Soar." That one word was filled by the resolve of his intent. In reaction, the air itself began to bend and distort as strong winds began to blow with Shirou at the focal point.

Nanoha could recognize the lethality of an attack in an instant. She couldn't let it fire. No. She couldn't let him do this! Her legs pushed her forth before the motion even registered in her mind. Her ideals, her beliefs, one of the very reasons she became a member of the TSAB even after all of her affairs had been settled was in order to help those in need. What she was witnessing Shirou doing right now was going against everything that she'd ever trained to prevent.

_Don't do it!_

Her heart leapt to her throat as her eyes noticed Shirou loosening his grip on the notched sword finger by finger, not a change in his expression. He was steel. Steel that knows no feeling, nor hesitation.

_You're making a mistake!_

He wasn't stopping. He wasn't stopping at all.

"**Caladbolg**," a name was invoked, shattering the calm of the area as the fabric of space itself began to twist and distort. It was the rainbow sword of Fergus said to be able to shatter mountains and hills with a single swing. To Nanoha, she had never heard of a Lost Logia with that name so she had no idea of its capabilities, and she didn't want to find out at the cost of hundreds of lives.

"NO! Stop don't!" She tackled Shirou on the side, an azure bullet streaking across the air and missing the plane on the landing strip by a narrow margin due to her sudden intervention. The look of surprise on Shirou's face showed just how much he didn't believe that she 'a fellow magus,' would intervene in his attack. Didn't she understand the weight of the current predicament? From the expression of anger in her eyes directed towards him who had nothing to say in order to defend himself, the answer was evidently, no.

The explosion that Caladbolg left behind in the sky over the horizon had Nanoha's mouth drying when she considered where the attack had been aimed at and just how much power it packed. It was already nearing the evening and the dark skies were entirely illuminated for miles upon Caladbolg's explosion.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" She snapped furiously at him, her hands grabbing him by the scruff of his combat vest and wringing him back and forth. "If that attack hit, you would have killed them all! What kind of Exceptional Human are you?!"

Shirou furrowed his brows. It was the first time that he'd been called exceptional, but he didn't need the praise right now. "I was doing what I had to do," he reasoned before Nanoha slapped him in the face, jolting him into a glower.

"Wrong answer," She glared. The grip that she had over the scruff of Shirou's vest only tightened the moment that she saw the look of sheer confusion on his face. "You can't just shoot it down and kill everyone on board," she clarified the reason for her anger.

He blinked his eyes before he hardened his features and pushed her away from him by grabbing her hands and wrenching her grip free.

"You tell me not to shoot it down, but what other method is left?" He gnashed his teeth, trying to maintain his cordiality. "You were the one who was supposed to stop them from boarding in the first place."

Nanoha winced, knowing the truth behind Shirou's claim. Even still, this and that were two separate matters. "Fine, I'm sorry for failing, but I couldn't just allow them to die either," she remained unmoving on the subject.

A flicker of empathy appeared in Shirou's gaze as if he'd once suffered under the same dilemma before. Nanoha continued, not noticing the change in Shirou's expression. "There were children, and whole families only trying their best to survive. If they didn't go to board that plane then they'd die. How was I supposed to stop them? Truthfully, I thought you meant that I was supposed to stop the ghouls from boarding the plane not fellow humans! No one has the right to say that someone has no other choice then to die!"

Shirou clearly agreed with her based on grudging light in his eyes; however, he was also looking at her as if she hadn't experienced all that the world truly had to offer. "But at the cost of other innocent lives?"

What? Shirou's answer threw Nanoha for a loop, and he wasn't even done.

"We can show mercy and compassion now, but what happens if that same mercy starts another tragedy somewhere else in the world that neither of us will be able to predict or prevent?" Shirou's lips thinned as he grimly stared into Nanoha's eyes.

Did she think that he _wanted _to kill everyone? What other choice did he have?

"B-But that's not fair," Nanoha's grip began to loosen.

After Nanoha had tackled him to the ground, the both of them had been sprawled out over the floor. When Nanoha had grabbed him by the scruff of his vest, she'd done so while straddling him and demanding answers. Hell, she was still on top of him and pinning him in place in case he decided to re-enact his earlier actions. With her grip loosened however, it didn't take much for Shirou to sit himself up and gently push Nanoha to the side.

She looked shell shocked, unable to deny what he'd just said but furiously trying to find a counter argument in order to refute him. She was failing.

"Life isn't fair, no matter how much one wishes to change things," he said with familiarity while gradually picking up his black bow which had clattered to the floor beside him. "If it's to save more lives, then it's a choice that must be borne. I will shoulder that responsibility."

For a moment, Nanoha saw the image of silver-haired man in a flowing red mantle superimpose over Shirou's image. Gone was the ignorance of youth, and slowly settling in was a beaten cynicism eating away at a man whose only motivation appeared to be the safety of others.

Shirou soon created an _identical_ copy of the Lost Logia he had just fired right before Nanoha's eyes. Her mouth opened then closed; however, whether she was reacting to what Shirou had done or the way that he was getting ready to fire again was debatable.

In truth, only a single motivation presently existed in her mind.

"We can save them somehow!" She protested. She stood up and ran to where Shirou was standing. "Please, listen to me!"

Shirou glanced in her direction with his eyes before scoffing. "It's not possible," he replied tiredly.

Nanoha lost it. "We haven't even tried!" She directly screamed at his face.

He didn't rise to the argument. There was no more time to waste. Once the plane began to pick up enough speed, it was going to get air born. He ignored Nanoha and trained his next shot at the plane's center, the expected explosion should shatter the plane into smoking pieces.

"Soar." Just as the grip he had on his bow's string began to loosen at his fingers, he felt a sensation that he couldn't ignore. The sheer magical energy and penetrative power suddenly spiking at his side would surely deal far more than an injury to him should he suffer a blow.

He froze, his gaze glancing behind him to where he felt the tip of Nanoha's Raising Heart aimed at his person.

"Don't make me fight you!" Nanoha yelled. "I know this isn't what you want to do. I can _see _it. Your goddamned hands are trembling. You know that this isn't right!"

So, she noticed.

He schooled his features, but he already knew what Nanoha meant. He hated killing the innocent and at the core of his very being, he feared that he was already slowly becoming something that he never wanted to be.

"_Please_,"

Shirou was momentarily struck, his features growing pensive, but all that he could see in front of his eyes was a reflection of someone that he had once been.

She held her weapon at him at gunpoint, but he didn't care, rather, he felt a fog clearing from within him from the moment that she spoke next.

"There has to be a way to save them all!"

It was the simplest of answers.

* * *

His name was Shirou Emiya, and in all honesty, he didn't know what to make of the magus who decided to shoot his leg and then track him down only to apologize. It was odd, but really, his luck had always been shit so he'd learned that tolerance was the only real answer to life's curve balls. That, and not to expect anything to ever go exactly as he planned. In truth, he was still trying to accept the reality of the latter revelation.

Presently, he found himself staring Nanoha down while she in turn held him at gun point with her weapon.

They were at an impasse. On one hand, he was trying to do what he needed to get done, but on the other, Nanoha was reminding him of his growing inhumanity. The more he killed, the more apathetic that he became and the dirtier his ideals began to feel. However, in order to save as many innocent lives as he could, his current actions were for the good of all.

_Not for those that you're going to slaughter. _An inner voice criticized what he was becoming, and he didn't even have the justification to deny it. Regardless, he had thought that he had the ability to do what he needed to do, but when faced by Nanoha's earnest pleas, he was inwardly hesitating.

You can't concede. You know what happens the last time you tried. Again, and again, he kept trying to convince himself of his cause, and yet Nanoha got him at a single point. A single naïve phrase that broke through all barriers and struck him right at his center of being.

Save them all.

It was that same damn wish that had always been his very driving force. What more did he need to say? He lowered his bow, much to Nanoha's relief, yet his eyes never left the plane.

"How do plan to go about doing this?" He questioned. If she didn't have any reasonable answer, then like it or not, he was going to have to stop that plane. "Let me tell you now, but there are no known methods to cure a human once they're in the process of turning into a ghoul."

It was relevant information, and yet in the face of it, Nanoha looked as if she already had an idea in mind. To begin with, she wasn't alone. She still had her connections with the TSAB which Shirou did not know of at all. The both of them were having their own misunderstandings about each other and at this moment, it was playing to their benefit.

"Trust me," she nodded her head. "Even if there's no cure yet, there's no harm in keeping them in quarantine until a method is found."

A logical idea. Shirou himself actually found himself nodding before coming to a blatant problem. "And where would you do that?" He questioned. Nowhere was really safe. Assuming that the people even manage to get out alive from the plane and survive, Shirou was more concerned about what the magi would do to people who've been exposed to the presence of magic. Silence them. It was the obvious answer. However, somehow, someway, Shirou could tell that Nanoha was not going to give him that sort of answer.

"A place that I'll take you to after all this is over," Nanoha promised matter-of-factly. "It should be safe there for them as well as help clear things up about what to expect for your future."

"Right," Shirou eyed Nanoha weirdly, but didn't choose to pursue her choice in words. After all, he was more concerned about getting a handle on the situation. They couldn't afford the time to argue or discuss for any longer. He looked hard at Nanoha before letting out a sigh. It had been a long time since he'd decided to act stupid. "I'll trust you," he found himself saying.

Nanoha immediately brightened before his next words caused her to deflate and grow more serious. "Whatever you have to do, keep that plane from flying," he instructed while beginning to limp off towards where the ghouls were piling by the air port's fences.

"Hey wait, where are you going?" Nanoha called out. "You shouldn't even be moving around with an injured leg."

"To do what I must," he replied back without missing a beat. "Don't worry about the leg, and just make sure that you do your part this time."

Nanoha nodded stiffly, fire lighting in her eyes as she grasped resolutely onto Raising Heart. "As if I'd need the reminder now," needless to say, Nanoha could already predict what he would be forced to do if she failed. Therefore, failure wasn't an option.

Nodding to Nanoha, Shirou began to make his way towards his intended destination, flooring Nanoha when she realized just _where_ he was going.

Wait, he was going to combat all the undead on his own?

Nanoha felt the need to convince him otherwise, but she had a feeling that she shouldn't be wasting anymore time. If Shirou chose to believe in her, then surely, he must expect her to believe in him.

She pursed her lips. If push came to shove, then if she was quick on her end, then she could move to support her fellow extraordinary human. With that in mind, she no longer looked in Shirou's direction and began to bolt off in search of higher ground. She found it by shattering the glass window of the airport terminal and hovering to the roof while riding on Raising Heart.

She assumed a vantage point and in a single motion, Raising Heart shifted to into its Shooting Mode. The gold section of Raising Heart's head dematerialized and formed into a squared shape with two prongs extending out for support against Raising Heart's recoil.

Magical energy quickly began to build at the muzzle of Raising Heart's head and formed into a sphere of writhing light. A sequence of magic circles formed a linear line, one in front of the other to channel the magical power into a straight beam. Meanwhile, Nanoha adjusted herself in order to aim, a translucent lens flashing over her right eye which helped highlight her intended targets.

The plane was picking up speed. The pilots and people on board had been slow on the uptake and the plane was still in the process of taking off. Just like Shirou had asked of her, she had to stop it from flying. To do so was simple at this point.

Aim for the wheels.

Glowing circular reticules highlighted the joints of the wheels attached to the plane making it impossible for her to miss. Let's get it over with. She needed the plane stop to make it easier for the TSAB to send people for pickup.

She took in a breath and leveled her body flat on the ground in a sniper's position. She didn't intend on blowing up the plane so she had to reduce the output of her attack.

Minimizing.

A loading bar manifested in her sight and only when it was low enough did, she tentatively pull Raising Heart's trigger. The mechanism shifted and activated the magic circles at Raising Heart's head which exploded the gathered magical energy outward into a branching beam that struck all of the plane's wheels.

In the distance, Shirou watched the attack with a mixture of awe and relief that Nanoha had been able to follow through on her end.

The plane skittered to a stop, the screams on board indicating that the people were still alive, and hopefully not too injured. Back on the roof of the airport, Nanoha deactivated Raising Heart's shooting mode and stood up while pressing a finger to her ear and activating a magic device.

"Nanoha requesting large-scale pick up," she signalled on her intercom. "Unknown magic event taking place on Earth. Suspected case of a Jewel Seed, but now uncertain of the direct cause. Further investigation is needed."

Her piece said, Nanoha cut of communications and immediately decided to position herself at an angle to provide Shirou with cover fire. She'd hardly used any of her magical reserves yet, and just like Shirou was thinking, she found it convenient that the ghouls had gathered together. Shirou wasn't the only one capable of unleashing devastating explosions like he'd had before. A couple blasts should be enough. Raising Heart floated in front of her while awaiting instruction.

Buster Mode Activa-

The command halted in her mind as she noticed an abnormality.

Why did it suddenly grow dark? The light in the sky had abruptly dimmed as if a shadow of a cloud had abruptly manifested. She looked up, only to find herself reeling in disbelief. That wasn't a cloud.

Radio static, tremors in the air.

"I am the Bone of my Sword." It was that line again.

Steel that knows no feeling, and steel that's only used for a single purpose.

Dozens of swords blanketed the sky, their sheer mass shadowing parts of the world beneath, yet through it all, Nanoha was focusing on a single point. Of the swords and weapons hovering in the air, many produced a similar feeling as the twisted sword that Shirou had launched before. Didn't that mean…Lost Logia?

Her mind halted at the sheer magnitude of the revelation. The fact that one of the TSAB's main duties was to recover Lost Logia was not lost on her, and yet, what sort of situation was this? She swallowed. How could one man possess so many ancient relics of a lost magical civilization?

Her superiors were going to have a field day.

* * *

Shirou had been feeling weird lately. It all began from the moment that he'd picked up a blue jewel that he believed that Rin may be interested in. His Traced projections didn't feel as taxing as they'd used to be, and it was like he had more energy at his disposal than normal, not like he was complaining at this point.

If he didn't eliminate the ghouls in front of him now, then his other colleagues that he was working with securing the area would. He couldn't allow that lest they find out that he'd been secretly saving people when he should have been killing them with the ghouls as part of protocol. Moreover, he didn't want them to realize the true depth of his Tracing. It was better for others to continue mistaking it as basic Projection for his own safety.

It was a good thing that the majority of magi had left in pursuit of the Undead Apostle that had already fled from the area. Only the minor ghouls were left behind, but even weak as they were, their presence in a crowded city alone was catastrophic.

It was time to get this over with. He could deal with what to do with the civilians in the plane afterword.

_Trace On. Continuous Fire. _

The swords that he'd projected high up into the air angled themselves down before falling in a rain of steel, gravity increasing their lethality and reducing the magical consumption required to propel them forward.

He mowed the minor ghouls down in the dozens while actively feeling his reserves dropping with each Traced sword. Sweat matted his brows and a wave of fatigue was hitting him, but different from past missions, he was able to hold out.

_Stop. _

A single inner command had his Traced projections halting in their tracks as he assessed the damage in front of him where the ghouls had been congregating by the fences. The area was now mottled with holes and bits and pieces of powdered debris. He took one look at the blood and mangled bodies minced in the craters and he was certain that he'd completed his task. Besides, it wasn't a pretty sight.

His job done, he began making his way to where the plane had skidded to a grinding stop, Nanoha meeting up with him at the half-way point. He raised a brow.

What? Why was she looking at him like that? Was it something that he did? Most magi disdained his magecraft and Nanoha should not have been close enough to differentiate his Tracing from Projection.

"Is there something wrong?" He questioned her inquisitively.

Startled at being called out, she fell into a fluster as traces of red began creeping up her face. In many cultures, it was rude to stare, and Nanoha was aware of such customs. Embarrassed, but still caught up over what she'd seen, she ended up not knowing how to answer.

"N-No, nothing," she fell into her own thoughts and ignored everything else around her for a brief moment before banging her head on a sign post. Rather than care about the bump forming on her head, she seemed more inclined to focus all her attention on him.

Weird woman.

Now then, his expression hardened: The matter of the plane.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and apologies for the shorter chapter. I've just finished a midterm today and have been feeling heavily drained. That being said, I still wanted to get this out so I hope you all enjoyed the read. **

**Next Update: TBA (To be Announced)**

**P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious**


	5. Chapter 5

The scent of blood hit harder than anything else Nanoha could ever describe, and she hadn't even entered the plane yet. With her weapon, she'd shot off the plane's wheels, causing the large mass of steel to grate along the ground until it had come to a stop. The cement of the runway had cracked and formed a crevice due to the speed of the plane's prior run off and fall. The ground was littered with small pieces of cracked rocks and debris while smoke wafted into the air from the nose of the plane.

After the scent of blood, panicked screams hit next, and suddenly Nanoha was stating to feel sick. Was this all her fault? In a way, she understood that it was. A plane was a confined space, and she'd been unable to stop the people from filling into it in their panic. The airport was the safest alternative. It was wider, and at the very least, people could run unlike the interior of a passenger flight.

Guilt flickered across Nanoha's face, her lips pulling down into a worried frown, but her strides never slowed. Regrets could wait. There were lives worth saving, yet when the screams died out, and all that was left was the silence of the runway and the clicking of her shoes over the ground, anxiety began to hit.

"Not good," Shirou muttered grimly, his feet picking up speed and pushing him forward faster.

_What did he mean 'not good?' _

Nanoha bit the bottom of her lip, but hardened her resolve as a veteran of the TSAB. This wasn't her first time dealing with events way over her head, but admittedly, this was the first time where she couldn't foresee any sort of happy ending that she could fight for. For her, it had always been about preventing 'action A' to stop 'action B' which would kill a lot of people as was the case with the Jewel Seeds.

The current predicament was entirely different.

All that she could truly fight for was to save those that remained. Like it or not, this wasn't a situation where she could save everyone, and it pulled on her conscience. She quickened her pace while following after Shirou, not speaking a word in order to focus on what was ahead of her. In a way, perhaps it was a mistake.

Light banter and a quick back and forth may have mitigated the impact of seeing the interior of the plane. It was a nightmare.

Pieces of flesh and whole limbs were scattered across the inner chamber. Passengers had clawed at the windows in a bid to escape the ghouls that had appeared mid-take off, but to no avail. Plane windows weren't made of ordinary glass in order to endure atmospheric pressures. There was no getting out, and people had died trying. Pieces of broken nails and smeared blood stains were scabbed over multiple scratched windows.

Nanoha was horrified, but more than that, she was enraged when a pair of lifeless eyes belonging to a woman stared at her as if in a bid for help, and she couldn't do _anything_. The woman was sprawled on the ground, missing both of her legs and a portion of her waist. It was a miracle that she was still alive, but in no way was it a mercy.

The sick tearing sound of flesh being ripped from the sinew of one's bones nearly caused Nanoha to wretch even as the woman raised a mangled arm forward. For a moment, Nanoha had thought the woman was pleading for help, and yet it was a different sort of help.

Nanoha's face quickly whitened.

"Shirou, NO!" Nanoha yelled in a panic as Shirou killed the ghoul and promptly cut off the woman's head so that she wouldn't turn into a ghoul later.

Nanoha's mind blanked. She should have felt angry, infuriated at Shirou lack of regard, but she couldn't bring any such emotion to the surface. Not when the last thing the woman did was smile as Shirou's sword neared her neck.

"S-Shirou you…" Nanoha's words die in her throat. She opens her mouth, but only her lips move without uttering a sound.

Nanoha had wanted to chastise Shirou out of impulse, but had faltered in the face of the wry cynicism he was wearing. It was almost akin to a sort of growing acceptance.

_'You can't save everyone.'_

Nanoha could almost image what Shirou was thinking, and although Shirou acted like his actions did not affect him, he was not doing a stellar job of hiding the trembling of his hands. Slowly, steadily, Shirou must have been growing disillusioned. Uncaring as Shirou portrayed himself to be when handling a job, it was probably a coping mechanism of sorts. In a way, Nanoha could relate to what Shirou was feeling because she herself was no better.

She'd wanted to save everyone, but in the end, it was with her own hands that she'd be killing them. What else could she do other than seal her morals away in order to save the people before her? Shirou was no different.

Before she could stop herself, or even think about what she was saying, the words already escaped her mouth. "It's not your fault," she says as Shirou snaps his gaze up to her.

"What did you say?" Shirou asks softly.

Nanoha swallowed. She had not intended on saying what she did, but seeing the flicker of indecision appear over Shirou's carefully steeled features prompted her to continue.

"Whether or not what you're doing is wrong or right, you can't blame yourself for failing to save someone while already trying your best," Nanoha did not know if she was saying this for her own benefit, but her words weren't wrong either. "It's not your fault for killing that woman. Even if you didn't help her in time, it doesn't mean that we can't save everyone. In a way, you still saved that woman," Nanoha grudgingly admitted.

"In the end, it's not wrong to try and save as many as we can," Nanoha concluded.

Shirou grunted in response. "You think I didn't know that?" Shirou sighed before turning away,

Of course, Nanoha felt like Shirou already knew something so simple. However, hearing that he wasn't wrong from another person was different from trying to convince himself that the path he was walking was correct.

"Get ready," Shirou warned.

Nanoha nodded and willed Raising Heart into her hands. Magical energy swelled from within her and funneled towards her preferred weapon. It was with an almost silent understanding that the two decided that Shirou would act as the vanguard with his swords while Nanoha provided cover fire. Raising Heart was large, and Nanoha's ability to swing unhindered within a plane was limited.

The two were currently in the closed off business section of the plane which was scarcely occupied. It was likely, that when the ghouls had shown up in the plane, they'd forced everyone to run towards the passenger class cabins.

Shirou moved towards the dividing door of the plane. With one hand, he tried to swing it open, but paused as he felt resistance on the other side. Based on conjecture alone, he theorized that the door was barred or blocked by something, possibly to keep the ghoul that was in the business cabin from entering. It was clearly a mistake because the ghoul that appeared in the business area was likely just the fastest to turn undead.

With grim expectations in his thoughts, Shirou nodded to Nanoha who readied a short burst of magical energy at the tip of her weapon which she leveled at the door. A second later, and an explosion echoed out as Nanoha blasted the door off its hinges to reveal the passenger cabin.

Like the business area, the passenger cabin was bloodied and strewn with corpses gradually turning into ghouls. However, life still existed.

There were people at the far end of the plane. They'd made a hasty barricade out of luggage from the overhead storage capsules above the two walkway isles. There were a good hundred of them huddled together and shaking, and the several dozen ghouls on board where making quick work of the luggage. The panicked yells, had fell into silent resignation at the sight. This all changed the moment Shirou and Nanoha were spotted.

"Help! T-These bastard brought infected on board!"

"B-But that was my daughter," a whimpering voice called out miserably.

"SHUT UP!"

"It's all your Goddamned fault! It wasn't just your kid who came on board! My son is dead because of you! Why are you even alive!? It's not fair!"

The people began to bicker, but the grief in all their eyes could be seen. They were simply using anger as an outlet, and neither Shirou or Nanoha held them accountable for what they were saying.

To Shirou and Nanoha, what mattered right now was how to go about solving the situation. The ghouls were easy and confined to a narrow place. Nanoha was already shooting them down, but Shirou was thinking differently.

This wasn't going to work. Shirou's eyes darted back and forth, observing the ghouls Nanoha was shooting down while taking note of the injuries on the remaining civilians. It was impossible for him to tell who was infected from whom, and if this problem wasn't sorted, then everything would revert to square one.

There had to be a way. A sure method.

In the midst of Nanoha's cover fire, Shirou shut his eyes and reached from deep within himself. His fingers twitched, patterns of circuit-like magical energy glowing brightly over his skin and drawing a portion of Nanoha's attention.

Shirou ignored what Nanoha was thinking. He'd been stared at by other Magi he'd worked with before who had attempted to dissect the nature of his magecraft. Doing so wouldn't be easy, and he didn't think Nanoha the sort to prioritize scrutinizing him over saving lives.

_Think. Think. _

That sole word was the only thought in Shirou's mind. Based on the nature of his craft, there would _never_ be a situation where he could be rendered unprepared. If there ever was, that just meant that he wasn't trying hard enough. If he couldn't find a solution to the current problem as he was now, then he just had to imagine something that can.

In essence, this was the truest sense of Shirou Emiya's greatest ability.

"Trace. On."

A thrum of power swelled from around him, creating arms of electric currents that branched outwards and formed sparks as they hit the plane's metal interior. Nanoha was forced back a few steps, Raising Heart held in a defensive grip as a tendril nearly singed her brows. Her mouth opened in shock and disbelief. It was a type of magic Nanoha had never seen nor was she accustomed to.

Surely if it was now, he could pull this off.

Since a few hours prior, Shirou had felt unnaturally saturated with magical energy despite the relatively moderate reserves that he was accustomed towards. A lucky break? A moment's miracle? He didn't know nor did he care, just that the abundance of energy would let him use what he needed.

A weapon not made for the express purpose of harm or violence, yet one that had once held the fate of a nation.

What determines right from wrong? Good from evil? The factors considered were always weighed upon over a scale of one's own moral integrity. For every person, the choice would differ. Therefore, the real question was who got to decide?

In the end, humans themselves were not worthy of such a choice. Instead it had fallen upon a single blade.

Light began to shine brightly, everyone within the interior of the plane's cabin, forced to shield their eyes. It was not a searing sort of light, nor one filled with heat, but it gave the feeling of security and righteousness.

The light itself glittered like specs of refracting droplets.

The sensation she was basked in was hard for even Nanoha to describe, yet she was certain of one thing, the sword that had formed in Shirou's hands was not normal.

A golden hilt, and a clear surface etched with the ancient words of a weapon not made solely by human hands. It was the work of a lost civilization, they who had left the mortal plain and entered the layer of the Reverse Side: The Fae. Magic essence itself exuded from every inch of the sword's make.

If Nanoha could hazard a guess about the sword's origin, to her, it could have had only come from one place. 'A lost sword of ancient Belka!' she screamed inwardly. She'd thought it before, but what sort of Exceptional Human was Shirou to possess so many types of Lost Logia?

The TSAB would need to know of this revolutionary discovery. If Shirou had access to as many Lost Logia as Nanoha was speculating, then what would that mean if any of the TSAB's enemies ever got a hold of him? No! He had to be protected. If he refused to come to the TSAB, she'd detain him for his own safety. He had no idea of the dangers he would face.

Ignorant of what the resolved expression on Nanoha's face meant, Shirou focused on the task ahead of him.

His hands gripped tightly upon the hilt of a certain sword he'd recalled from memory, as he invoked its properties.

_Worthy or not worthy. _

Shirou wasn't the original wielder of his current weapon, but even still, the sword did not reject him. For in this instance, past and present combined as one through the nature of his craft. His disposition changed much to Nanoha's astonishment. His bearings, his expression, his posture, it all looked so regal; so just to the point that it seemed like all evil that stood before him was bound to be judged.

_Light of selection. _

A ringing noise echoed in Nanoha's ears, and grew by the second as the air began to glimmer and glow. It didn't matter if the light engulfed the ghouls or the people cowering at the far side of the plane. All was illuminated.

_Cleaver of the wicked. _

The ringing stopped, replaced instead with a tranquil silence before the sword was swung and unleashed the power of its legend.

"Caliburn!"

The Sword of Choosing.

A beam shot forth, fractures forming over Caliburn's edge as Shirou flooded it with magical energy and broke the sword to increase Caliburn's effectiveness. Ordinarily, Caliburn shot of a laser-like attack that used heat values to decimate all in its path, but when broken, the conceptual properties of Caliburn reached their peak.

As the sword that determined the worthiness of a King to lead the land, it had the ability to select what was evil and vanquish it in its light.

The smell of burnt ash wafted up Nanoha's nose as she looked on bewildered at several people that she was sure she'd seen hit with Shirou's attack standing perfectly fine. Such potent magical power should not have been able to differentiate between friend and foe, but it somehow _had._ In comparison, the ghouls had turned to dust drifting in the wind.

Nanoha just couldn't believe it. The situation ended at the swing of a sword, and for Shirou's part, he was just relieved that he'd had enough reserves to pull of a Noble Phantasm after Caladbolg's misfire.

Unfortunately, after the ghouls were dealt with came the tricky part.

Not only were all the ghouls defeated, but those infected in the crowd had also been incinerated, meaning that all that were left were people who were saved. Well, _could _be saved.

"It alright," Nanoha said reassuringly. "Everything's safe now."

Nanoha began walking forward, but Shirou did not quite join her. Instead, his eyes darted outside the window towards a place he knew the rest of his fellow magi were waiting. He knew that he'd taken longer than necessary, and that meant it was almost guaranteed that someone would be sent to check up on him.

Shirou's expression darkened. He knew the policy regarding those who learned of magic by accident or otherwise.

Death was the simple fix, and it was what was expected of him to do.

It was what his fellow _magi_ would do without question over the hassle of memory magecraft.

As Nanoha continued moving towards the frightened people, Shirou continued looking for any sign of his colleagues. Things would get bad quickly if they discovered what was going on.

Shirou was just thankful that for a magus, Nanoha seemed pretty loose with the notion of secrecy. He'd tried to get a read on her by going through the history of Raising Heart, but because of Raising Heart's sniping component, categorizing it as a gun, the notion was difficult. What he knew of Nanoha now was only bits and pieces made worse, as Raising Heart was not the original. It was a re-forged weapon so its history was far from long. All that he knew from Nanoha was that she had a peculiar form of magecraft, and just like him, she'd started off ignorant to the Moonlit World before some sort of event had forced her involvement.

Fortunately, she seemed to possess a humane moral code comparable to his own.

"It's alright. Everything's fine," Nanoha said again in the tense atmosphere.

Shirou kept his silence, but 'everything's fine,' was not the way he'd describe the situation.

Shirou's eyes abruptly narrowed. He saw a figure.

From the looks of things, no; everything wasn't fine.

From the side of a plane, an ear deafening crash alerted Shirou and Nanoha to an individual who'd blasted his way into the plane.

Smoke wafted out from a custom shotgun as a man with unfeeling green irises narrowed his gaze while observing the situation within the plane. The scars that ran over the brow of the man's left eye and the right side of his mouth and chin, creased with a sigh. The barrel of the shotgun was aimed at the surviving people which quickly put Nanoha on edge. However, the prosthetic hand holding onto the grip of the shotgun slackened before the weapon was put away.

Different from Nanoha who was staring at the man warily, Shirou's relief was evident on his face.

"You're damn lucky it's me, Emiya," the man said curtly as a man of few words. "Same as last time, then?"

"Same as last time." Shirou nodded as the tension left his body.

Nanoha just stared back and forth between the two.

Allen Miller scratched at his messy blond hair and slumped his shoulders. He couldn't help but think that he should have made better friends, but it wasn't everyday that he met someone with similar ideals.

If a person could be saved, then there was nothing wrong in helping. In this sense, Allen and Shirou had quickly gotten along as individuals aware of the supernatural.

Allen stared at Nanoha for a moment before seeming to come to his own conclusions.

"Let's go. There's not much time before the others come."

* * *

Allen led everyone away including Nanoha while Shirou went and reported to his fellow magi that the situation had been dealt with.

Hours later, and after the magi had left, Shirou arrived to what amounted to an underground bunker that was the size of a small facility. There was a story to how it was acquired by Allen, but it was a tale for another time. What mattered was that the facility was being used to house dozens of people who were meant to be killed after discovering the existence of magic.

What Shirou was doing was heresy in the eyes of the Mages Association, but he could never bring himself to kill the innocent unless forced. This fact was still true to him.

He was walking on a tightrope with the Association, and one mistake could land him with a lot of attention. He was already being scrutinized by his peers and this was _after _Rin hid the topic of him possessing a Reality Marble. His situation was precarious, his actions punishable by death, and yet he still followed through with them.

Shirou shook his head. This wasn't the time to think about 'what if's.'

Inside the underground facility, Shirou noticed Allen staring down an appalled Nanoha.

"What do you mean these people will be killed if they leave?!" Nanoha screamed at Allen's face. No, Nanoha appeared too composed to be screaming. It was more akin to raising one's voice just enough to convey outrage.

She'd grabbed the scruff of Allen's collar and pulled him down to her level in order to demand an explanation. Allen grimaced in discomfort, and stared at Nanoha in confusion.

Nanoha was weird for a magus if she didn't yet know the Mage Association's secrecy policy. She could have been sheltered, but even Shirou had known and he'd been a recluse to the moonlit society.

Not wishing to waste any words on Nanoha who he felt was pulling his leg, Allen freed himself from Nanoha's grip and turned his attention to Shirou. "Deal with her," he said flatly before excusing himself to stand behind Shirou.

Allen was not a real magus. He was a man of science who was aware and had survived through numerous encounters with magecraft. If Nanoha wished for explanations about how magi went about their business, Shirou was the better choice.

Scratching the back of his head, Shirou took a step back when he noticed Nanoha's glare train on him for answers.

"It's protocol," Shirou said reluctantly.

"Protocol- _Protocol?_" Nanoha couldn't believe what she was hearing, but just looking at the unwillingness in Shirou's eyes, it was clear that he wasn't lying. "Why?" She stressed.

"They saw magic."

Almost as soon as Shirou answered, he knew what Nanoha thought of his reply.

"For such a _stupid _reason!" Nanoha had to shut her mouth and forcibly quell the anger building within her. The TSAB also had the same policy on magic. They'd warned her about not showing magic to the common population on earth, but this was the first she'd heard of a killing policy.

"This is ridiculous," Nanoha vented by speaking her mind. "Besides, who is supposed to kill them anyway? Does the world have some sort of secret organization meant solely for that purpose?"

Shirou refrained from speaking out a 'Yes,' in this moment. Nanoha wouldn't appreciate it, as from his perspective, she must have been a highly sheltered magus.

Unfortunately, Shirou's silence was still enough of an answer.

"Fine then, I'll take them from your hands." Nanoha said stoically much to Allen's relief.

Truth be told, the recent number of people Shirou had saved was running the underground facility over capacity. There simply wasn't enough room to house any more people before Allen would be forced to start kicking others out to fend for themselves.

"Where are you taking them?" Allen asked as he felt the need arise for it. "I'd recommend a desert setting or an abandoned island not found on the maps. It would be safer," he spoke from experience.

Nanoha had other plans however. Right before Shirou and Allen's eyes, she pressed her index and middle finger to her right ear and activated a magic circle which she talked into. "Requesting mass transport," she said.

Shirou furrowed his brows while staring at Nanoha. A long-distance communication spell? Yet, who exactly was she contacting?

The answer came after Nanoha began patiently calling everyone in the facility to form into a single group. Around two-hundred individuals including family members and friends huddled together in a small circle before something strange occurred.

A strong smell entered Shirou's nose, alerting him to a large influx of magical energy building up over head. "What are you doing?" He questioned Nanoha sharply, but it appeared as if she didn't hear him over coordinating with whomever she was speaking to with her magecraft.

The air began to shimmer and distort, the people growing nervous, but constantly assured by Nanoha not to worry.

In his mind, Shirou locked the hammer of a mental gun in place as he readied a certain Rule Breaker into deployment if Nanoha planned anything malicious.

And then it happened.

A radiant pillar of light manifested for only an instant before the underground facility became eerily empty.

Alarmed, Shirou moved towards Nanoha to question her by force if he had to about the people's whereabout. However, it was then that he noticed that Nanoha was staring right at him with an expression of utter astonishment.

Shirou looked down at himself and soon noticed a small spot on the back of his right hand was shining brightly. It possessed a sapphire glow, and now that Shirou focused on it, he felt the sheer amount of magical energy stored within and balked. Whatever Nanoha had done, the magical energy used for the transportation spell had reacted with something that had burrowed inside him.

"T-The Jewel Seed," Nanoha stuttered.

The what? Was all Shirou could think of before his vision blurred and he found himself in a place a long long ways away from home.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! **

**P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious**

**Next update: Fate In time**

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**Summary of book:**

**Death. Grief. Ruin. Nothing was left unchanged after an unexplained tragedy led to the loss of millions across the world in key locations. Cities were reduced to wastelands of steel and concrete, and many were forced into migration. When events leading to the prior tragedy occur once more, Kevin Black was going to have to learn that sometimes mysteries were better left unsolved. Trapped with his friends in the world of a ruined city filled with monsters, the journey out would be far more perilous than the journey in.**


	6. Chapter 6

Where even was this place? For Shirou it was difficult to tell, as it felt as if he was floating. He couldn't feel the ground, nor could he distinguish a general sense of direction. Different from being upside down in water where the direction of blood flow could allow the body to subconsciously tell up from down, this felt like space. There was no anchoring gravity to give a sense of direction, no forces at all.

This was void space; a realm of black. It was the common pathway between dimensions where nothing theoretically existed. One can't see, nor hear, nor feel within the boundary. Just as worlds started as specs in space, boundaries existed between them. In modern science terms, it's said that even now that the universe is expanding. The area outside the universe is what's considered the void space.

Most magi weren't scientifically inclined, but many did attempt to study the properties of worlds in order to reach the Akashic Root said to possess all knowledge. Those that reach the root are blessed with True Magic unable to be duplicated after seeing the truth of reality.

Now, Shirou knew nothing of the fundamentals of what just happened to him, but he didn't really care. He just wanted it to end. Hard as it was to believe, every second was feeling like an hour. By the time he regained a sense of stability, it was to find himself in an alien world bereft of all life and filled with grey dust and craters.

If anything, it looked like he was on the moon, and somehow breathing in oxygen. Regardless, there standing right across from him was a man in a tailored and high-collared black suit and tie. He wore an overcoat around his shoulder held together by a piece of woven rope fabric down the center. He gave off an air of nobility and mischievousness, but the manner in which he carried himself was reminiscent of a man who'd already experienced the highs and lows in life. All that was left was entertainment and recollection of what couldn't and could have been. The man's mane of grey hair and scruffy beard were almost iconic.

It was hard for Shirou to disregard the man, as other than himself, the man was the only other person around.

Again, Shirou was a third-rate magus who never really cared for the goal of reaching the Root, but it didn't mean that he was unaware of certain individuals never to associate with in the Clock Tower.

One name in particular was ringing true in his mind.

Zelretch, the Wizard Marshal.

Despite Zelretch's status as an undead and member of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors after his battle with Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, he was still an honorary member of the Clock Tower. Lorelei, the Queen of the Clock Tower barely tolerated his presence if at all, but this wasn't the point of contention.

Zelretch was known famously in the Mage's Association as the owner of the Second Magic, Kaleidoscope, the ability to freely access and harness the power of parallel worlds.

In short, he was a dimensional hopper who was well known to torment magi for his own amusement.

In Shirou's mind, he already understood that Nanoha was not one to randomly transport him through void space on a whim. She was the type who'd ask and make sure he was ready for such a thing to happen.

This left Shirou with only a single conclusion.

He'd drawn the attention of the Clock Tower's Wizard Marshal. He shuddered at the thought, but didn't let it get to him for long. Zelretch was already walking closer to him.

"I'd apologize for suddenly hurling you to a more private dimension if I was actually sorry, but I'm not." Zelretch shrugged, a gleam in his eyes. "You see, you've gotten yourself involved in a rather delicate situation that I'd rather not grow too complicated, Mr. Emiya."

Shirou wasn't even surprised that Zelretch knew of his name. In fact, there was hardly anything Zelretch did not know simply because of his Magic. If one world's you wouldn't speak, then what about another world's you? The thought itself was mind numbing, but this wasn't what mattered.

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked while steadying his feet so as not to fall. "I don't remember doing anything that should warrant any attention aside from ignoring certain protocols by the Clock Tower which I don't think you really care about."

It was true. Owners of the True Magic wouldn't care if magecraft as a whole were discovered by the general population. Their Magics were magics because they were all un-replicable, meaning that their effectiveness would never dwindle.

Zelretch narrowed his eyes, but soon grinned. "You'd be right if we were just dealing with matters of the home dimension, but you've just gotten yourself involved with a fairly troublesome organization called the Space-Time Administrative Bureau. In the many parallel worlds and dimensions that I have visited in my lifetime, only they were a constant presence."

Shirou did not miss the meaning of Zelretch's words. "D-Dimensions?" He stuttered out. "As in more than one, and not this one?"

Zelretch hummed whether in annoyance or wryness, Shirou didn't dare to confirm and simply waited for his answer.

"The Space-Time Administrative Bureau is an interdimensional security force from a civilization that has developed the magic to cross dimensions and worlds. They govern said worlds and restrict them with laws to uphold their form of 'peace,' while hoarding away relics of power from a lost magical civilization known as Lost Logia in their main dimensional hub." Here, Zelretch frowned. "They may believe that their actions are in the right, but from a different perspective, its like their removing any possibilities of a rival competitor rising up by taking away the weapons of a weaker dimension. This breeds the question of who's to stand against the STAB should they become corrupt? But that's not the current predicament. Sorry, I've been rambling. To a certain extent, you can think of the STAB as an advanced military organization equipped with my Kaleidoscope."

This statement alone already caused Shirou pause. If a True Magic could be replicated, then it would no longer be a True Magic. In a sense, he could see where Zelretch's concern could come from, but the man seemed too lax on the issue.

"Don't get me wrong, boy, but there's still a difference between my Magic and theirs. You see, they have the ability to jump between parallel universes, but my power oversee the operation of parallel universes." The distinction was a prominent one.

Zelretch's Jeweled Sword came to Shirou's mind. It was a sword that stored the boundless energy of parallel worlds and was able to launch it all out at once, utterly annihilating anything. Zelretch continued.

"The only problem is that I've made it a goal to keep the secret of magecraft away from the common knowledge of STAB to avoid a hassle. As far as they are concerned, our world is a magicless civilization. After all, nothing good would come with the discovery of magecraft in our home world. By the STAB's laws, the entire Mage's Association and its affiliates would be blacklisted for certain atrocities done by magi, and corrective measures would surely be taken."

Zelretch looked Shirou right in the eye. "This would mean war," he stated flatly. "If anything could unite magi, it's the shared dislike of anyone threatening their research. My motivations and some of the other Lords and rulers of the Clock Tower may differ, but in the end, we'd fight too. I can be lax, but I won't sit by as I still have a duty to the slumbering Princess of the Crimson Moon. If they come with the intent of subjugation, then they will see first hand the true power of our world, and that's exactly what must be stopped. The STAB do not know the existence of the Types, and conflict between dimensions may very well rouse them."

Silence permeated the area as Shirou contemplated what he'd just heard. He balled his hands into fists and thought not of the outcome of a battle between magi and the STAB, but of the causalities that would definitely be sustained. It wasn't an image he wished to dwell on, but one thing was still bothering him.

Since when did he come in contact with STAB? Wracking his mind for an explanation, he soon realized that there was only one variable that had changed about him as of late.

Nanoha and the mysterious jewel he'd picked up. With that in mind, he returned his attention back on Zelretch.

"I don't think you brought me here just to tell me about a hypothetical war," he surmised, brows furrowing together as he scratched the back of his head. "What is it that you want me to do?"

Zelretch was back to all smiles, his back straightening and gloved hands opening to reveal a small gem between his fingers. It was a familiar sight to Shirou.

"Recognize it?" Zelretch held up the particular azure gem to his eye level. "This is a Jewel Seed, and like my gemcraft, it holds a substantial amount of magical energy. This one in particular is nothing more than an imitation that I tried to recreate, but what you picked up was the genuine thing which STAB will definitely attempt to acquire. Coincidently, it has fused with you."

_What? _It was here that Shirou balked and immediately began running a diagnostic on himself. He found himself shuddering and feeling like he'd just been doused by a bucket of water at the revelation. Of the Twenty-Seven Magic Circuits within him, he became distinctly aware of an artificial 'twenty-eighth' that was abnormally large and pulsing with magical energy.

"Can't I just take it out somehow?" He asked to clarify.

"Do you really need an answer for that?"

True. He'd already checked the status of his body himself using Structural Analysis, and unless he could forcibly cut it out without killing himself, there was no way to remove it.

"Now here's what I need you to do," Zelretch got straight to the point. "That girl, Nanoha, works for the STAB situated in a dimension called Midchilda. Whatever you do, I need you to deceive her and keep the knowledge of magecraft in our world secret. Of course, this means that you should not agree to visit Midchilda lightly lest the more intelligent members see through any lies. How you intend to pull off this request is up to you, but you already know the alternative."

Shirou frowned. Despite the indifference Zelretch was giving off, he couldn't help but notice the amusement in the man's gaze for his situation.

Was he really going to be up for this task?

Knowing what was at stake however, it wasn't as if he could refuse. "Fine," he conceded.

* * *

Nanoha was stunned. No, she was flabbergasted. As a member of STAB, she'd long since been able to see the tell-tale signs of spatial displacement. The Administrative Bureau often used it when porting individuals or groups through worlds, and yet, Shirou's sudden disappearance clearly wasn't the work of her organization.

"Just to be clear," she radioed in with a magic receiver. "Nothing went wrong with the dimensional transfer, right?"

_'Affirmative.' _A familiar voice filtered in from the other end. It was Fate's voice, Nanoha's rival and best friend. _'Are you sure that everything's alright there, Nanoha? It's not like you to keep anything secret.' _

"No, I'm fine really. The situation's handled and I've also found out the location of the Jewel Seed...well, sort of. Speaking of which, I found someone else like me." Nanoha's voice carried exuberance, her back straightening and a smile forming on her face. "Another Exceptional Earthling who can use magic."

_'Is that so? You don't have to answer that. Just take care. I can send over a team if ever you need it.' _

"Thanks," Nanoha ended her communications and got to the matter at hand.

Shirou along with the Jewel Seed had disappeared in what seemed like a dimensional transfer. Maybe if she inspected the magic still lingering in the air, she could determine where he'd been sent?

Humming to herself, she came to the abrupt observation, that Allen Miller, Shirou's associate of sorts, was just taking everything in stride. He was lounging over a chair while disassembling and maintaining his firearms. The shotgun was split into parts on a table as the man focused his attention on his assault rifle.

"Are you not surprised with what just happened?" She questioned.

"Should I? I thought dimension hopping was common." Allen was not much of a talker. He replied once and clearly looked as if he didn't want to be disturbed. However, there was something reminiscent that appeared in his eyes that caused Nanoha to give him a double take. The scars over Allen's left eye told of a story, but his hardened demeanor signalled that he wasn't one to speak lightly of anything unless they were friends. Last Nanoha had checked, Allen was not her friend. Why then did he bother replying at all?

"What do you mean common?"

Allen suddenly looked like he regretted his decision to speak in the first place. Unknown to Shirou, Nanoha wasn't the only dimensional traveler, but different from Nanoha, Allen no longer had a place to go back to. He was a crystal seeking dawn, the meaning of which no one had to know but himself.

Sitting up, Allen decided to forcibly shift the topic to one he knew would catch Nanoha's attention.

"Ever heard of mages?"

Nanoha blinked, and Allen simply spoke on, not knowing how much of a headache he was going to cause for his friend.

* * *

One moment Shirou was speaking with Zelretch, and in the next, he was being hurled back directly where he came from. The experience was harrowing, but fortunately, he'd gotten used to it a bit since the first time, and soon enough it was over.

He fell back into Allen's bunker with a noticeable bang, the sound echoing within the spacious interior now empty of its former residents. Sprawled on the floor, having failed to land on his feet, he used his hands as leverage and hoisted himself up into a seated position.

Expectedly, Nanoha and Allen were staring right at him.

"See?" Allen spoke up. "I told you it was common."

Nanoha looked like she didn't know how to respond.

Shirou knew that he was missing something here, but that didn't exactly matter to him right now. Getting up onto his feet as Nanoha approached him, he began reviewing what he'd been told by Zelretch, and contemplated how to complete the task at hand.

Distract her? How was he supposed to do that? It wasn't as if he was some sort of performer, but knowing Zelretch, the man definitely viewed his life as one big show. Therefore, he _was_ a performer in a sense, and suddenly he began to understand why most magi hated Zelretch's attention.

Keeping himself steady, he prepared himself to be questioned about what had happened to him, or about the Jewel Seed in his possession. However, Nanoha true to her personality, did not act as expected. Instead, she threw him a curve ball.

Standing face to face with each other, she looked him right in the face and asked him a question that immediately rendered any logical plans he'd made utterly meaningless.

"What's the Mage's Association?" She asked.

_For fuck's sake. How?!_

Shirou suddenly recalled that Allen was nearby and gave the man a long stare. Aleen just blinked back, not knowing what sort of predicament he'd just landed Shirou in, and continued working on his guns.

When Zelretch of all people gives a warning, then it had to be taken seriously, and now he was starting the game of deception with a A-Class difficulty rating. Of course, it had to be him of all people stuck with this shit.

"It's a fancy golf institute." He said it with a straight face, and he didn't even know how. Something was dying inside of him, oh wait, never mind. It was just his sense of rationality. "Metal gauntlet Lorelei's always at the top of her game, and the senior most members are part of a Lord's group enabling them to VIP privileges. Aspiring young golfers everywhere come for the express purpose of being taught pro-level golf skills in classrooms run by professionals in their field. Don't bother searching for their names though. It's a high-level sports society that includes only those in the know and blacklists common golfers that learn too much."

Nearby, Allen looked dazed like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Actually no; it was more like he was never going to think about it again. He was a mercenary who'd experienced the worst and the best parts in life.

Allen knew that if anyone who Shirou just mention heard what he'd just said, someone was going to die for the sake of someone's smeared image, and preferably not him. Allen may have survived magic attacks before, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.

When Shirou glanced in Allen's direction for back up, Allen wordlessly turned away while mouthing a sentence that suspiciously sounded like 'Your funeral.'

"A golf institute?" Nanoha parroted suspiciously. "And you're part of it?"

_How much did she know? _Shirou felt like he was fighting an uphill battle.

"Yeah, it's in London," he tried to downplay the issue fully knowing that it was bullshit. What kind of golfer was he when Nanoha had already seen him in action during the Dead Apostle hunt? Denying it however, was better than admitting the truth.

Nanoha, bless her, didn't seem to press the issue. She decided to make it worse and play along.

"Sounds interesting, let's go."

_L-Let's go? _His mind momentarily ground to a halt.

Nanoha gave him a raised brow, a grin on her face as her optimism showed. Now that the matter with the ghouls was solved, and the people saved, she allowed herself to be more carefree. At the same time though, she'd come to accept that there were certain facets of her home world that even she didn't know and was definitely curious about.

The difficulty of his endeavours just shifted to EX-Rank. "Why?" He almost wheezed out, but managed to retain the calm in his voice.

"What? You didn't think I was just going to leave, did you?" Yes. Yes, he did. No, he hoped for it. Still did. "Well I can't until you come back with me since you possess something called a Jewel Seed and items called Lost Logia. As a member of the Space-Time Administrative Bureau, I can't just leave you alone."

_Of course, she couldn't. That would be too easy. _

"Besides," she stared at him cheerily. "We're more alike than you think as exceptional earthlings. Also, metal gauntlet Lorelei sounds interesting."

_No. No she really isn't. _

"Right."

He couldn't do this. There was no way he could do this alone.

_Rin. Rin please have a method to solve this shit. _

* * *

**Thanks for reading! **

**Next update: TBA**

**P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious**

**Book link: Fatedlegacydark. ca**

**Summary of book:**

**Death. Grief. Ruin. Nothing was left unchanged after an unexplained tragedy led to the loss of millions across the world in key locations. Cities were reduced to wastelands of steel and concrete, and many were forced into migration. When events leading to the prior tragedy occur once more, Kevin Black was going to have to learn that sometimes mysteries were better left unsolved. Trapped with his friends in the world of a ruined city filled with monsters, the journey out would be far more perilous than the journey in.**


	7. Arc 2 Prologue

Apart from being able to use magic, the first real thing Nanoha noted about Shirou Emiya was that he was a terribly bad liar. He couldn't quite keep his face straight, nor could he come up with something believable. She supposed the notion of a pro-golfer's club _may_ (she used this term lightly here) have had worked on her if she didn't have prior knowledge from Allen, but she still would have been doubtful.

As it was, what was the best way to deal with liars? She could have opted to call him out on his bullshit, but that was too easy. There wouldn't be much of a lesson learned aside from 'lie better,' for next time. By playing along, it would force the liar to either cave or try to maintain the ruse. The question now, was what kind of answer Shirou would choose. Prolonged suffering? Or ending the ridiculous notion now?

In case she wasn't clear of her stance on liars yet, Nanoha had never liked liars, not a lot of people did. This was especially so when you know that you're being lied to. The hidden magic institution known as the Mages Association that Allen had briefed her on was a far cry from the golfer's club Shirou described.

Nanoha wished to give Shirou the benefit of the doubt, as she'd seen the type of person that he was to risk his life to save others. In which case, surely, he wouldn't just blatantly lie for no reason?

Now that Nanoha thought about it, even Allen seemed somewhat subdued when he spoke of the Mages Association. There was something that she was missing here, but the prospect of an entire society of exceptional earthlings hidden on the planet was mind opening. There were so many good things that could be done with earth having its own magic users. Mid-Childa and the TSAB could employ many of them to help maintain peace and order throughout the parallel worlds.

Take it this way, the Nanoha of the past was ignorant to magic, but she'd still turned out strong in the end. What more could it mean for trained magic users? They could do so much good alongside the TSAB. So, why then was Shirou being secretive about it? Allen was the same.

Nanoha gave Allen a skeptical look while Shirou remained scrambling for an answer to Nanoha's previous statement about meal gauntlet Lorelei.

Were the two of them just nervous about making the existence of magic known? The possibility was certainly there, but Nanoha couldn't understand it. There were dozens of magically inclined worlds with the knowledge of magic made public. What was the big deal?

The TSAB had warned her to keep the existence of magic secret from earthlings, yet this was with the assumption that magic didn't exist enmass for humans on earth to begin with. If a Mages Association existed, then when she relayed this information to TSAB Command Center, Earth would no longer be treated as a magicless civilization and instead by treated as a magical one.

Knowing the higher ups of the TSAB, they'd soon send envoys and delegates to broach the subject of cooperation to maintain the stability of the realms. Fate may be sent as a delegate as she's been on earth multiple times and is experienced as a mage, but there was no definite answer yet. Earth fell under the jurisdiction of the TSAB, so someone higher up may be sent to handle negations and explanations.

Nanoha wasn't familiar with it, but the TSAB had some sort of protocol to deal with unknown magical worlds under their supervision. The protocol seemed to be divided into two categories, one in the case of cooperation, and the other something Nanoha wasn't quite privy to. In any case, she had faith in the TSAB, so she'd let them deal with it.

For the time being, Nanoha found it best to gather more information before compiling a report. This report would also account for the fact that Shirou seemed to be in possession of a Jewel Seed. He'd probably be brought in to the TSAB eventually to examine his current status. Well, these were thoughts and considerations for later.

"Sooo," Nanoha drawled, her eyes rolling exasperatedly as Shirou had yet to admit to his lie. "What do you know of golf?"

Shirou's lip twitched, and Allen curtly excused himself due to the way Shirou's eyes were boring a hole into his back and disrupting his gun maintenance. By this point, Allen seemed to infer just why Shirou would be staring at him in accusation. It was fairly obvious to Nanoha, as the both of them gave entirely different explanations of the Mages Association.

"Even if we're friends Emiya, this one's your problem," Allen nodded once towards Shirou and soon left. "I apologize if I wasn't supposed to say anything about the Mages Association, but I didn't know that talking about it was off limits. In any case, call me if it actually gets bad. For now, I have things to do."

Nanoha took careful note of the way Shirou sighed at Allen's departure. 'There goes my backup,' Nanoha could almost hear what Shirou must have been thinking, but hey? Why was she being treated as a hassle?

Maybe because she _was_. Fine. She had to admit that even she'd be annoyed if she met a random person who was drilling her for an answer that she was reluctant to give. She eased up her stance and let out a long breath before giving Shirou an unimpressed stare.

"Alright, there's no need to play dumb," Nanoha folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head up to stare Shirou in the face. "Your friend already told me details about the Mages Association that have nothing to do with golfing." The edges of her cheeks nearly perked upwards in amusement for just how bad the lie was, but she held strong to give the desired monotone effect.

Shirou's shoulders hunched over and he scratched the back of his head with his right hand. He looked sheepish, more than likely understanding that he himself didn't believe his own lie. "You couldn't happen to just conveniently forget about everything that happened, can you?"

She pondered over the suggestion, but soon came up with a legitimate counter.

"Firstly, lets start with introductions again," she began with a radiant grin. "I'm Nanoha Takamachi, a member of an interdimensional force known as the Time-Space Administrative Bureau. I'm originally from this world, and have returned to it after detecting fluctuations of a missing fragment of a lost magical civilization known as a Jewel Seed. This was the main purpose of my mission and you've somehow gotten yourself involved by picking it up."

Shirou hummed. "This Jewel Seed, will you go away if I just give it back to you somehow?"

"You sound like you can actually do that?" Nanoha was skeptical. "For some reason, this particular Jewel Seed seems fused to you somehow."

"Well about that." Frowning, Nanoha watched as Shirou created a twisted and jagged ritual dagger from out of the air and placed its tip over his chest. One look at the dagger, and Nanoha quickly realised it wasn't ordinary. "What if I can fix that problem?"

Fix the problem? How could it actually be that easy? However, Nanoha hesitated. The look in Shirou's eyes were genuine in their confidence. She felt like her tongue was tied. After retrieving the Jewel Seed, she had been instructed in her mission briefing to head back to Midchilda to minimize interaction with Earth's inhabitant and the TSAB.

The issue was, if she complied strictly to mission parameters, she wouldn't get the chance to verify the existence of the Mages Association. Well, regardless, she'd still have to mention it on her report.

"If you can give it me know, then I'll head back to TSAB, return the Jewel Seed, and then file my report." A look of relief flashed across Shirou's face as Nanoha spoke, but the relief was short lived. "The TSAB will probably send an investigatory team afterwards to look into this Mages Association and the presence of magic users on earth."

Beads of sweat seemed to form over Shirou's brow as he wiped them and looked Nanoha dead in the eyes. "About that, can you _not _mention other magic users and a Mages Association on earth?"

"Why?" Came the prompt reply. Besides, it was already too late not to report. Her mission feed and radio magic allowed the TSAB to keep tabs with their agents. Nanoha was no different and the TSAB had become aware of magic on earth at the same Nanoha did, or at least Fate did from the intercom.

Besides, was magic being public knowledge such a bad thing? Nanoha couldn't understand why Shirou was making things so difficult.

Seemingly realising that lying would get him nowhere, Shirou opted for bluntness in his answer. "There will be repercussions. Ones that may take many lives."

Repercussions? The word echoed in Nanoha's mind.

Rather than explain, Shirou shook his head and decided on a course of action. "It's better to see what you're up against. You wanted to see the Mages Association, so fine, I'll show you."

Shirou dismissed his conjured weapon after getting confirmation that it wouldn't matter if he removed the Jewel Seed from him or not. For the time being, he might as well make use of it.

Turning his back to her, Shirou gestured for her to stay close to him.

"Follow me."

* * *

This situation between the TSAB and the Mages Association was a delicate one. Shirou knew that he was not proficient enough to handle it, as he was always more of a battle-oriented magus. However, even he understood that he needed to get Nanoha on his side. Rather than keep her ignorant, it was better to convince her to keep the matter under wraps.

Hopefully Rin could better elaborate on what kind individuals Magi were in order to prove a point to Nanoha. It wasn't just about their ethics that Nanoha had to be wary of, some magi were just monsters.

Nanoha needed to understand this before she ended up rubbing any Magus the wrong way.

For such a means, the moment Shirou reached the Clock Tower, he didn't give Nanoha the time to marvel at the buildings nor ask much in the way of questions. Instead, he escorted her towards the dormitories that studying magi could use as temporary magic workshops and lodging during their terms.

In this case, he marched himself and Nanoha towards a particular individual's room and workshop, Rin Tohsaka. She was a long-time friend who shared something of an ambiguous relationship with him. While others spread rumours about their relationship, she was too prideful to ever admit to anything romantic in light of public scrutiny. Romance was frowned upon by magi, and unless it was for political marriage, romance was always secondary compared to the pursuit of the Akashic Root.

Anyways, Rin was a demure spitfire when pushed over the edge. She was short in stature, liked to wear skirts that bordered on too revealing, and posed herself as a model student. She had black hair tied up into pigtails but had opted to wear her hair long in the Clock Tower. Her love for red blouses hadn't changed since high-school with only minor adjustment till the present date. Red was fierce and refined. In case it wasn't already clear, Rin prided herself on appearance as the Tohsaka family heir. She wouldn't allow her reputation to be tarnished if she could help it.

The difference between Rin and most other magi was that she actually had a soft heart. She wasn't one to let atrocities stand even in the name of research. Most of all, she was someone Shirou trusted to always have his back.

So, when Rin ended up opening the door of her room, and saw Shirou standing next to Nanoha, she didn't immediately drive him away in irritation. Instead, she crossed her arms, and smiled the smile she used when her annoyance was getting the better of her.

Rin said only a single word. "Explain."

Somehow, Shirou felt that a majority of Rin's irritation wasn't about whatever situation he'd involved himself in, and more about what relationship he had with Nanoha. Honestly speaking, this wasn't the first time another woman had gotten tangled up with him in the Clock Tower. That honour belonged to Luvia Edelfelt, and Rin detested Luvia because it was like looking at a mirror. The two's personalities were destined to clash. Unbeknownst to him, but the situation between them had only been made worse when Luvia declared her intention to recruit Shirou into house Edelfelt.

In any case, this wasn't like last time. Before Rin herself could start questioning him about an unrelated topic, he made a gesture to be discreet. "It's one of those times, Rin."

Ah yes, one of _those _times.

The way Rin pinched the bridge of her nose and leveled him with a resigned look was enough to guilt him into realizing just how much trouble he regularly got her involved in. It was to the point that he didn't even need to explain too much anymore.

Rin ushered everyone in before activating a silencing and detection ward outside her dorm room.

Well, here we go again, and this time it involves the Second Magic and different dimensions.

Rin was not going to be pleased.

* * *

"Please wait here for the time being and make yourself at home. I hope Shirou hasn't been making too much of a fool of himself while bringing you here."

For some reason, Nanoha felt that Rin's smile was deceptively fake despite looking entirely genuine. Regardless, she still gave Rin the benefit of the doubt and replied back in earnest, shooting Shirou with an admiring gaze.

"Thank you very much, but Shirou's actually been very kind and helpful. I just met him a couple days ago, but I think he's a good and selfless man worth getting close with," she said honestly. It was her evaluation of him and the respect she had for his heroic qualities. She gave a cheerful smile while scratching her cheek with an index finger and glancing at the floor. She did not notice the way Rin was stomping on Shirou's foot in frustration.

"…I-Is that so?" Rin turned to Shirou with a sharp look before returning her attention to Nanoha and smiling gently. "Then please excuse us for a moment. We have a _lot _to talk about."

Shirou and Rin left soon after. Nanoha may have been imagining it, but Shirou looked hesitant to enter the same room as Rin whose smile had abruptly faded as she looked one last time between Shirou and Nanoha. Just because Rin's pride often got in the way of her personal feelings did not mean that she had none, nor an opinion.

"Talk. Emiya. **_Now_**," was all Nanoha managed to hear before Rin shut the door of the room the two entered behind her and trapped Shirou inside.

While Rin and Shirou were discussing in private, Nanoha soon found herself perusing through the living area Rin had told her to feel at home at. At first, she had seated herself on a recliner and patiently waited, but the time had stretched from five minutes to thirty with not a sound to be heard.

On one hand, Nanoha was not ignorant to courtesy and knew not to snoop around someone else's home, but something about this place was giving her a feeling of wariness. It felt kind of like being too close to an oven. The energy of the heat that the oven exuded would make one feel uncomfortable and could be dangerous is one drew too close.

Aside from the oppressive feeling, this place was fascinating. Ancient looking tomes, magic circles, and archaic inscriptions were laid all around the room. Moreover, everything exuded the distinct energy of magic and the supernatural.

Different from the TSAB, there didn't seem to be any scientifical components to the magic. Raising Heart for example could double as a magic gun and looked entirely mechanical. In comparison, everything here was made of parchment or earthly material, belying a magic system Nanoha was not familiar with.

Was it strong? What does it do to help people? Could she learn it too?

She felt like a child learning magic again for the first time. Still, her childish curiosity was outweighed by the oppressive feeling of something possessing an overwhelming amount of magic energy. It was difficult to think straight in this atmosphere and as an exceptional earthling, her senses were more in-tuned with the various nuances of magical wavelength.

She felt the need to verify if she should be wary or not.

From what she'd heard Shirou say, the Clock Tower was some sort of school of magics that incorporated various magical fields of research. It wouldn't be much of stretch for the association to carry items of potent magical energy, but this was only in the room of a student. If the student possessed something so strong, then how strong was the Clock Tower?

The magic energy became stronger as she moved through the room to investigate. Whatever object was, she concluded that it possessed so much magical power that if it were ever unleashed at once, the results would be catastrophic.

Perhaps it was a Lost Logia of the highest rank?

She didn't know, for sure, but one thing was clear as she soon found the source in an adjacent study room, it was a weapon. A crystal sword to be specific that wasn't really there but whose image and presence was being projected through some sort of magic mirror. Perhaps it was for reference? Regardless, Nanoha shuddered when she thought of what the real sword was capable off.

The image of the sword was floating above a desk with detailed blueprints laid out in a manner Nanoha couldn't comprehend. No, more than that, the fact that the sword had blueprints meant that a method for production of the sword existed.

Wasn't this dangerous?

The blueprint was a jumble of words and diagrams that she had no clue about, but the name of the sword itself was simple to make out.

_Jewelled Sword Zelretch. _

Suddenly, this Mages Association, a school of magic in the pursuit of 'research,' didn't appear to be as simple as it seemed.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Sorry for smaller update. Work took longer than normal and I have to sleep early for a morning shift. I still wanted to get this out as it's simply the prologue for the next arc. **

**Next update: Fate-In time**

**P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious**

**Book link: Fatedlegacydark. ca**

**Summary of book:**

**Death. Grief. Ruin. Nothing was left unchanged after an unexplained tragedy led to the loss of millions across the world in key locations. Cities were reduced to wastelands of steel and concrete, and many were forced into migration. When events leading to the prior tragedy occur once more, Kevin Black was going to have to learn that sometimes mysteries were better left unsolved. Trapped with his friends in the world of a ruined city filled with monsters, the journey out would be far more perilous than the journey in.**

**Fiction Press: Survivor's Log: Reflections**


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